Archer of the Fifth
by ScarletAesir058
Summary: He was a fragment of a god, lowered to the form of a servant and doomed to wander the Throne of Heroes for all eternity as its Warden. That is until Shirou Emiya accidentally summoned him as the Archer of the Fifth Holy Grail War. Now Uzumaki Naruto is back and determined to have some fun with Life. The Holy Grail War will never be the same. Currently on Hiatus!
1. An Archer, Saber and a Lancer

Pairing: Naruto/Medusa/Scathach/Arcruied/Mordred? Shirou/Saber/Rin/Sakura/Luvia/Illya?

Rating: M

Summary: The throne of heroes had originally been meant as a dimension to contain the souls of transmigrants and powerful chakra ghosts such as Hagoromo and Hamura but then quickly filled up with Heroes deified throughout human history as time went on. However sick and tired of looking down on the world from the Throne Naruto is pleasantly startled when he is summoned for the 5th Holy Grail War as its Archer.

Disclaimer: I neither own Narutoverse or the Nasuverse. It all the intellectual property of Masashi Kishimoto and Kinoko Nasu. I am just writing a kickass non-profit fic using their themes, characters and universes.

A/N:

So welcome to Archer of the Fifth, my first Naruto/FSN crossover. I've been dying to do one of these after reading Lucid Beserker by Madhakerslacker and being introduced to the greatness of the Nasuverse by Third Fang and his brilliant From Fake Dreams. Anyway if you make it all the way through this first chapter please leave review and tell me what you think, constructive criticism please cause I really want to become a better writer and your opinions matter. On with the story.

Chapter 1: An Archer, Saber and a Lancer walk into a neighborhood!

" _I am everything that you earnestly want to become Shirou. I saved the whole world more than twice in my time and so many people so many times that I couldn't remember them all even if I bothered trying to count all my adventures. I **am** what you wish to be but if you truly want to become like me then you are going to have to leave this foolish path you've chosen for yourself, cause such an ideal can only lead to damnation."_

— Naruto Uzumaki to Shirou Emiya

 **oOo**

 **My life was saved.**

 **My life was saved so I won't die that easily.**

 **I need to live, to fulfill my duties.**

 **And I can't do that if I am dead.**

 **I am not going to be killed in a place like this.**

 **For no reason by a guy like you who kills people like its nothing!**

A curious expression crossed Naruto's face as he not so much heard these words but rather felt them resonate through his very soul and call to him in a haunting and almost beautiful way. Something was happening and not just happening here but happening to him specifically.

In this infinite but bland landscape were nothing ever happened to him, Naruto couldn't help but be fascinated by this change of circumstances. Their was a powerful tug on his soul and it quickly dawned on Naruto that he was being summoned back to the world of the Living. However that was completely impossible, Naruto knew this as surely as he knew his own name.

The only way for him to go back was via Endo Tensei no jutsu ( **Impure World Reincarnation technique** ) or someone using the Rinnegan to perform the Gedou: Rinne Tensei no jutsu ( **Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life technique** ) . However the ninja world had long since faded to dust, dust that had then been scattered to the four winds eons ago. Not to mention Naruto severely doubted any Rinnegan users were left and even in the off chance that an Otsutsuki out there might still have the legendary ocular powers, he most certainly wasn't on Earth. Even from the Throne of Heroes Naruto would have sensed such a thing. Those eyes resonated with his very soul after all and thus were intrinsically tied to his legend.

Relinquishing himself to the effects of the summoning which was far less than perfect Naruto was pulled through space and time into what appeared to be a small shed of some sort. Despite the shock of being summoned back to the land of the living, he didn't linger on this long for he was not alone in the shed. Yes their were two other individuals

The first was a boy that looked like he'd been roughed up quite a bit already. He had rust colored hair and golden eyes that immediately reminded Naruto of Senju Tsunade, his grandmother figure. Said boy was sprawled on his back trying to sit up and wore what the automatic information the Grail downloaded into a servant's mind referred to as a school uniform. A school uniform with blood on it and located where the heart should have been was a tear that looked like it came from a bladed instrument.

A part of Naruto's mind even as he took in all these things dwelt on the fact that the sheer concept of a school uniform was rather absurd to him. When he went to school each ninja wore whatever the hell he or she liked and it was usually tailored to their specific needs, fighting styles and abilities.

Their was no such thing as true uniformity amongst ninja's...well ninja's who wanted to get above the level of Chunin that is. Uniformity meant predictability and while he had a reputation as the **most** unpredictable knucklehead ninja in Konoha, all ninja's tried to be unpredictable. The rest of Naruto's mind however gave its undivided attention to other person in the room.

Standing directly across from the boy was a man with luminous red eyes and blue short hair that fell into a ponytail behind him. He had pale skin and a grin that could only be described as absolutely feral, while his body radiated authority in a way that could never be described as human. He wore a skin tight body suit that was colored blue, with silver decorations along its length and silver pauldrons on either shoulder.

Runes...Naruto didn't know much about them but the grail supplied him with the knowledge that the man's clothes were covered in them as well as his weapon and what a weapon it was. A blood red spear with runic patterns inscribed all across it and a serrated edge that looked...cruel. It was also leaking enough killing intent to make Zabuza go into a little corner and cry in shame, something that was sending Naruto's Negative Emotion sensing abilities haywire

Said spear was also in the blue haired servants hand and already mid thrust and on a vector that would most certainly prove fatal for the boy that could only have been Naruto's summoner. As for the spear, it was without a doubt at least one of the servant's Noble Phantasms and getting uncomfortably close to the russet haired boy's heart. Naruto couldn't allow this and so he acted or more precisely he moved. Like lightning...

VvV

"The Seventh Servant!" Came the startled cry of the blue haired spearman as his thrust was stopped with a loud clang. Said loud clang was a relief to Emiya Shirou's seeing as it meant he wasn't dead just yet. Slightly to his left where previously no one stood was a man who looked to be in his early twenty's, with sun-kissed blond hair and sapphire eyes that simply glowed with power. He was also holding back the deadly red spear with what looked like a mere kunai.

 _'Was he a ninja?'_ Shirou wondered to himself.

As a citizen of Japan and a youth, while not as normal as your every day 17 year old for a whole list of reasons we will not be going into, Shirou was still a teenager and as such was exposed to a number of things teenage boys liked such as robots, samurai and the ever mythical ninja. Their was simply no way he wouldn't recognize the classic ninja weapon.

Their was no time for such thoughts though as a second kunai popped into the blond's free hand before being thrown at the attacking spearman. Shirou's blue haired assailant didn't even blink as he brought the bloodthirsty crimson spear in between himself and the incoming projectile before casually deflecting it. It was in that instant that something clicked in Shirou mind and he realized that the second kunai was special.

Aside from it sharing a general resemblance to kunai in general, this new kunai had two extra blades jutting out of its sides at a slightly inward angle. It was also slightly larger than your typical kunai and had some yellow paper around its grip with special writing on it and the ring at the end.

But what truly freaked Shirou out about it was how he instinctively knew that the weird writing on the kunai was a beacon that allowed one to teleport to it. Something that was proven not even a nanosecond later when the blond man instantaneous shifted from where he was two meters away from the spearman to about half a meter like a video recording that had some how skipped a second forward.

A sphere of blue concentrated spiraling... **prana**...appeared in the newcomers left hand and slammed into the spearman's chest without a seconds hesitation and blasted him out of the shed with enormous force followed by a shout of. **"Rasengan!"**

With that done the blond man took a second to turn towards Shirou and finally spoke. "I believe this is the part where I am suppose to ask whether you are my master?"

"..." Shirou didn't reply though. How could he? What would he even say after witnessing something so unbelievable. Everything that had taken place had taken place within the space of three seconds. He wasn't a fool and could tell right away that he had just borne witness with his own eyes to high level Thaumaturgy bordering on true magic.

Without missing a beat the blonde continued unbothered by his silence. "But clearly you are even though you seem a little tongue tied at the moment. That's fine, you're probably not used to being in fights like this so let me deal with our unwanted guest first and then we can talk!" With that Shirou's savior turned back to the hole through which he had blown the blue haired spearman and then with speed so great it left a shockwave that toppled Shirou over for a second time that evening the blonde man charged the enemy.

VvV

All thoughts of his master's well being were shoved to the back of his mind as Naruto slammed a wind wreathed kunai into Lancer's crimson spear. This was not an opponent he could relax too much against. Cu Chulainn, the Child of Light, the Hound of Ireland. A man whose legend was equal in weight to that of King Arthur of Britain and a student of the god killer, Scathach. This was bound to be an interesting fight and Naruto had high expectations of Lancer.

Naruto's potent razor sharp wind prana ground against Lancer's legendary spear for less than a nanosecond before a slight tilt of the blue haired servant's wrist redirected all the force to the side harmlessly slicing a massive gouge out of the earth while Lancer retaliated by swinging his spear's shaft around to clobber Naruto in the head.

Naruto blocked this with his Hiraishin kunai with which he used the side prongs to catch the spears butt with. However not missing a beat Lancer twirled it once more in a different direction with the broad blade of the spear coming to slice Naruto apart this time. Naruto again used his regular kunai encased in wind to smack the spear aside but jumped backwards as Lancer dropped into a sweep kick.

Unfortunately this was all a ploy by Lancer to get Naruto into the air. A clever trap really, due to the fact that if he was suspended in midair his speed would be negated by gravity along with his ability to dodge and even his blocking would be extremely limited.

In fact despite the fact that Naruto had merely hopped over the blue Knights sweeping leg and thus could only stay in the air for a second at most, this was a lifetime to servant that could move at speeds that far transcended human ability...and Lancer's were well known for the their agility, with this particular one standing out even amongst the rest.

Cu Chulainn was already prepared with his crimson spear in a thrust position by the time Naruto reached the apex of his little hop and it was already speeding forward to pierce his heart before the ninja even started descending.

Now their were several options available to Naruto to deal with the situation, deflecting the attack with any number of ninja technique's was a possibility but he didn't want to show off too much of what he could do just yet to Lancer. So Naruto settled for a trick Uzuki Yugao taught him long ago, one used by her former lover Gekko Hayate.

Naruto brought the ring of his regular kunai into the trajectory of the spears thrust and caught the spears tip in the middle of the ring with his left hand. It wouldn't hold against a B rank Noble Phantasm for long even if the kunai was being augment by his prana but that was fine, he just needed a nanosecond.

His right hand shot out and the tri-pronged kunai shot towards Cu Chulainn's head who instinctively dodged it with a tilt of his head. Unfortunately for the crimson eyed spearman Naruto instantly teleported to it and slammed another flash created Rasengan into him.

 _'To hit the legendary Cu Chulainn with a Rasengan twice using the same trick, priceless! This day just kept getting better and better.'_ Naruto thought as Cu Chulainn was blasted backwards and flipped end over end from the sheer force of the attack before spinning to his feet and quickly stopping his momentum. All in all he looked merely a little ruffled up and ready to go a hundred more rounds.

It was impressive seeing as in Naruto's time a Rasengan was considered an A rank technique albeit his standard rasengan's were far smaller than those created by his father the original creator and the ones he'd just used were flash created. Still even a Jounin back in his day couldn't just shrug of a Rasengan like Cu Chulainn, at least not unless your name was Hatake Kakashi or Maito Gai.

"So you did teleport." Lancer finally deigned to speak up, more curious than angry about taking a second Rasengan to the face.

"Oh that." Naruto said as he looked at the Hiraishin kunai in his hand before twirling it between his fingers in a fancy display and replying. "Just a little something I borrowed from my dad. Truthfully I am not all that good at teleportation but sweet kami does it have its uses. Now enough of this feeling each other out thing Lancer. Let me witness the true power of the Hound of Culann. I have plenty of respect for your master so I have high expectations of you."

"Are you saying you knew that woman?" As Lancer replied Naruto detected an edge to his voice that promised death if the blue haired man heard something he didn't like. Lancer was quite passionate when it came to anything involving his master it seemed.

"No! However you and many others who made it to the throne of heroes have all spoken reverently of her and your actions as her disciples shall speak even more clearly. So enough talking, show me what you can do." Naruto bellowed before he blitzed forward and was intercepted halfway in by the Child of Light when Cu Chulainn's spear shot out and destroyed his wind encased kunai like fragile glass. The Hound of Ireland was a formidable opponent who deserved his name and his place on the throne. And more importantly he was done playing.

Before they had been feeling each other out and had held back much of their strength and ability to better test the waters. This time shockwave after shockwave after shockwave resonated across the yard as spear met kunai and obliterated the shinobi's weapon of choice only for another to instantly take its place.

While his Hiraishin kunai due to the legends of his father and later him using it was able to stand up to a true Noble Phantasm and survive, Naruto's regular kunai on the other hand shattered with every strike. Thankfully they were part of a greater Noble Phantasm which included most of his jutsu and he could create more instantly so long as he had the prana to spare. And if nothing else Naruto was a prana nuclear reactor.

Deflecting three strike from the butt of the weapon and shaft before a nasty thrust that came in so fast the attacks seemed simultaneous, Naruto sidestepped and snapped out a kick which Lancer was forced to block with his spear. It was never going to connect with the spearman, Naruto knew Lancer was too good to let that happen. His kick did however have sufficient strength to send the Hound of Ireland skidding backwards in a shockwave of power and leave two 15 meter furrows in his wake.

Naruto's move had bought himself a second and he needed to use it wisely. Drawing on a lifetime of battle experience, Naruto's analysis of the battle so far assured him that if he continued fighting like this he would lose to Lancer so he decided to break out a few more surprises. A kunai slipped into his hand which he immediately threw at Lancer before flipping through four hand-seals in a blur and muttering. " **Kunai: Shadow Clone Technique!** "

A single Kunai became a wall of fifty razor sharp blades ready to skewer the blue haired spearman and crossed the distance between the two combatants in a microsecond. Humans couldn't have reacted to such a thing, even season jounin in his time would have had trouble, especially with the speed Naruto threw the damn things at.

Lancer on the other hand merely became a blur of speed and deflected every single one of the kunai even knocking some of them right back at Naruto who had to tilt and twist to avoid his own weapons skewering him. Not one of them could've touched the blue haired demigod if Naruto threw kunai at him all day, but this was perfectly fine by Naruto, it was all part of the plan after all.

A smoke bomb was already prepared in his hand and an instant later it exploded across the floor creating a thick fog of smoke that obscured all vision. Even so Naruto knew that Cu Chulainn wouldn't need to see him to skewer him so he quickly moved to the next phase of the plan.

As a heroic spirit Naruto had immense agility, agility that was extremely high due to his legend even if it was reduced now that he was a mere servant and due to his legend having been forgotten. That being said, the Body Flicker technique was specifically created to boost a ninja's speed to the extremes and was only limited by a ninja's tunnel vision.

Which was why Uchiha Shisui, Namikaze Minato, the Fourth Raikage Ay and many other shinobi feared for their terrifying speed had all without fail overcome this problem. Most of them could even move so fast that they simply looked like they were teleporting even when they were not (Namikaze Minato was considered an extremely fast shinobi even without the **Hiraishin no jutsu/Flying Thuder-god Technique** and was often mistaken for using his legendary teleportation technique even when he used the Body Flicker technique).

Most shinobi used it to get around quickly and to wow or spook fresh genin. The ANBU Black ops operatives were a little more creative in how they used the technique and often used it to completely invigorate their entire bodies with chakra allowing them not only to move at incredible speeds but do other things at incredible speeds. Things like, flashing through complex and lengthy chains of hand-seals in little more than a second, a skill that was easily one of the most common forms of this the technique and one Naruto now employed.

The world that already appeared to be moving at little more than a crawl to Naruto was suddenly frozen in place as he strung together 3 three separate techniques together with hand-seals. It wasn't an easy skill and took a lot of practice but when you could spam shadow clones like Naruto and gain 20 years of training experience in a week well...their wasn't much he couldn't learn if he didn't want to.

As Naruto finished the last hand-seal and felt the technique's taking effect the smoke ahead of him burst apart like an exploding balloon in a shockwave created by Lancer as he blitzed forward fully intending on impaling Naruto where he stood. Naruto merely smiled in amusement and pulled out a stack of 20 exploding tags and scattered them around him before he was out of time.

Lancer's spear pierced straight threw Naruto's heart as he yelled. "Whatever you are thinking of doing I won't let you."

"Its too late." Was the only thing the impaled shinobi whispered before he burst into smoke and was replaced by a log. A log that was riddled with explosive tags that were all alight and ready to detonate.

Sensing something bad was about to happen Lancer made to move away but a pair of hands burst out of the soil and began to pull him down. Without even thinking about it the butt of his spear smacked the clone clutching at him in the head dispelling it but the Servant of the Lance was already knee deep in the ground by then.

Knee deep was not enough to keep any heroic spirit in place, let alone a Lancer and this particular Lancer was a top class Heroic Spirit with fame that equaled the likes of King Arthur and Heracles in some parts of the world. It was however sufficient to delay him by a microsecond and that was enough for all the tags to simultaneously detonate.

 **BOOOOM!**

The shockwave from the explosion shattered every window in Shirou's house and rattled the ground all across the neighborhood. Shirou who had been watching as much of the fight as he could with his Reinforced eyes found himself blown backwards into the shed once more from the force of the explosion. Even the real Naruto who was crouched on a nearby rooftop, invisible thanks to the **Touton no jutsu/Transparent Escape Technique** still had to use chakra to stay in place or risk getting knocked off the roof.

In the center of the backyard from the middle of a massive crater engulfed in flames and smoke Lancer jumped out onto the opposite roof. His clothes had tears in them and he was covered in in soot, burns, scratches and a plethora of other minor wounds but all in all he just looked pissed off rather than actually hurt.

Snarling he yelled. "Bastard! Show yourself. What is the meaning of this sudden cowardly and deceitful way of fighting. When we crossed blades early I was certain you were of the Knight classes."

Dropping the invisibility technique Naruto replied with a dark chuckle. "I am Ninja you know. Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha's Number one knucklehead ninja they used to call me."

"So you are Assassin?" It was an accusation. It was completely incorrect too seeing as Naruto was summoned under the Archer class but it wouldn't hurt to misguide his enemy a little and let them come to the wrong conclusions on their own.

"I was trained as one." He replied not really giving a definitive yes. He then shifted his position and said. "However do you have any right to complain Lancer! I know for a fact that you are at least thrice as strong as you showed me and were still holding back in our fight. Its your own fault if you got caught in such a simple trap cause you were pulling your punches enough for me to actually set a trap in the first place."

"Tch!" Cu Chulainn snorted in disgust before saying. "It's not that I was pulling my punches, its my cowardly master who ordered me not to go all out. Its the only reason you are still breathing or I would have definitely skewered you by now."

"I see, that explains why this fight felt so easy." Naruto replied with a smirk.

"Don't get cocky blondie. I wasn't meant to go all out tonight merely observe other masters and their servants. Your master just so happened to have witnessed an earlier battle between me and another servant which was why I was trying to kill him. I didn't expect him to summon the seventh and final servant." Lancer growled.

"He is strange master that one, I can tell that much." Naruto agreed with a whimsical lilt to his voice.

"Don't need to tell me twice. I already killed the bastard once tonight before he came back to life and then when I confronted him a second time he proved that he totally sucked at magecraft but had top notch battle instincts. If I had known he would summon someone like you I would have definitely killed him on the spot." Lancer declared with a tinge of frustration and respect in his voice.

"In that case Lancer, I appreciate that you didn't. Its not every day you get to walk the Earth and fight against other legendary heroes." Naruto replied with Nostalgia lacing his voice this time.

Lancer paused for a moment, looking as if he had suddenly drifted off in thought before he said. "Hmph! My master wants me to retreat. It seems killing that boy isn't worth the trouble of fighting you...yet. If you'd agree to continue this some other time I will retreat for the night."

Simply nodding his head Naruto replied. "Sure, that's fine. My master seems pretty confused, I think I might have to break him in and teach him about the Holy Grail War. So until our rematch you better not get yourself killed and next time I won't go so easy on you Lancer."

Lancer actually grinned at this, a genuinely happy and none-bloodthirsty grin as he replied. "You stole the words right out of my mouth Assassin. Though I am glad that you at least have the guts to face me in open combat."

"Hmph! What an interesting guy." Naruto muttered to himself as he watched Lancer leave before he turned back to the shed where Issei was standing still gaping at the fight that had just taken place. Sighing as he walked back to his master Naruto muttered under his breath. "I see this will take some explaining."

"So the authorities aren't going to come around questioning why their was an explosion coming from my house." Shirou asked in utter disbelief while eyeing the busted up yard suspiciously.

"Not unless they can pierce through the multi-layered barrier I put up around the house before everything went Boom." Naruto replied with a shrug. He wasn't yet entirely sure off the full capabilities of modern day humans, civilian and magus alike but he hoped that wasn't one of them.

"Barrier?" Shirou asked as he looked around in confusion. He couldn't see or more precisely smell anything that might indicate a barrier of some kind had been erected. Of course with all the prana Lancer and Naruto had been throwing around it would have been difficult for even a first rate magus to determine if a barrier had been erected.

"Well I suppose in your terms you'd call it a Bounded Field." Naruto began explaining, mistaking the confusion in Shirou's voice for him not making the connection that a Barrier was a Bounded Field. "Sound proof, Anti-shockwave, Anti-kinetic impact and an Illusion all rolled into one with a few hastily placed seals. It was the best I could do on short notice with Lancer zipping around everywhere like a maniac but it did the job and nobody who shouldn't know about the Holy Grail War should come looking for us."

"Well that's good then. I don't want to involve innocents in this...tournament?" Shirou muttered in visible relief even as he chose the last word carefully and in clear disapproval of the Heaven's Feel Ritual.

"Yep." Naruto nodded his head in reply to the question, popping his his lips at the P sound.

Getting back to their original topic Shirou began. "So just to recap, you were saying that you are a Servant, the spirit of a hero from ancient legend shoved into a life-like vessel for the purpose of competing in a tournament between magi known as masters for access to an all-powerful wish granting artifact also referred to as the Holy Grail."

Making a so so motion with his hand Naruto replied. "More or less."

"And I am now one such Master?" Shirou asked unsure of this whole magical ritual.

"Technically yeah. I mean you got the command seals on your hand and everything." Naruto pointed to the red symbols engraved on the teens wrist. They kind of looked like a bow too, probably cause Naruto was the Archer class Servant.

Of course Shirou was perceptive enough to pick up that their was more to the story and asked. "But?"

"But you kind of suck as a Magus, not to mention that of all the Heroic Spirits you could summon, you summoned me of all people. Something that is utterly impossible or its supposed to be but for some reason with you it isn't. Honestly I can't tell if it was just dumb luck on your part or the involvement of something else that I can't quite put my finger on yet." Naruto explained in exasperation as he looked the young magus up and down as if he had three head and fifteen arms growing out of his back and shoulders.

Shirou simply ignored this and asked. "Why would you say that? The last part I mean, I already know I am just a third rate magus."

"Well cause you are human for a start and a modern day human at that. It's supposed to be completely impossible for your kind to summon me, seeing as I am not exactly a regular servant. Secondly you are all far too weak to summon me and from what I can tell none of you even remember my legend any more so you wouldn't even have had the requisite knowledge of my existence to do so in the first place." Naruto explained to his Master before adding. "So why is it that not only did you manage the impossible but I can't shake the feeling that someone deliberately set things up so that I would be your servant. Honestly its frustrating the hell out of me."

Looking down rather nervously as Naruto blabbered on and on Shirou finally asked. "Are you unhappy with me as your Master then? I know I am 3rd rate magus."

Naruto who had began pacing backwards and forwards as he was lost in thought instantly stopped and rounded on Shirou before replying. "Don't be an idiot Shirou. You may suck at being a master but that doesn't mean I am not grateful to be alive again, breathing this air and walking this earth. Besides there is always room to improve. I can even train you if you like?"

Shirou head snapped up to look at Naruto so fast the ninja swore he heard something crack as his master all but yelled. "Really?"

Ignoring the ringing in his ear Naruto nodded firmly and replied. "Yeah! You don't look like you are in you late twenties yet which means there is room to grow and become strong. That is if you are willing to be me my student."

"Then yes, I would gladly be your student sensei." Shirou whooped enthusiastically.

"Good. I suppose we should formally introduce ourselves now. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, Archer class Servant of this war and your new Sensei. Just call me Naruto or Sensei." Naruto said extending a hand for a handshake.

Shirou hesitantly took the hand before firmly shaking it as he replied. "Shirou, Emiya Shirou. Its a pleasure to meet you Naruto."

"Like wise. Now how bout we put this conversation on hold and go talk to the Master and Servant pair that have decided to pay us a visit at this late hour and by talk I mean I confront them while you wait for my all clear signal. You've already died once tonight according to Lancer, I would rather it didn't happen again." Naruto said poking Shirou over the bloody hole in his uniform from where Lancer had stabbed the boy through the heart.

It was with a light glare that Shirou who was somewhat opposed to Naruto's plan finally relented a few minutes later with a frustrated. "Fine."

Smiling at the fact that they had gotten that little tid bit sorted out Naruto quickly sped off in the direction he sensed the Master and Servant duo approaching. They weren't far thankfully and Naruto was able to get to a street where he would be able to intercept them rather quickly. _'This will be fun.'_

VvV

It was with a feeling of dread that Saber and her Master Tohsaka Rin approached the familiar neighborhood, well familiar to Saber that is, Tohsaka not so much. When she had first come across the boy Emiya Shirou as Rin was healing him after her fight with Lancer at the High School she hadn't thought too much about his name. After all he looked nothing like Emiya Kiritsugu or Irisviel von Einzbern.

Now however, she couldn't deny the growing coincidences anymore. A boy with the same last name as her former Master, living in the same neighborhood her late friend Iri had been murdered who just so happened to stumble upon two servants fighting. Said boy then not only got stabbed through the heart by Lancer and survived – albeit he remained on the brink of death – long enough for Rin to use magecraft to bring him back from the edge but made a full recovery in seconds which was a clear indicator of something beyond even Rin's effort's being in play something Rin didn't seem to notice.

And now they were about to head into said boy's neighborhood where Kiritsugu might be located alive and well and possibly even with a servant of his own. A lot of this was just conjecture and guess work but if any Master could've survived the war and the wrath of Gilgamesh after she destroyed the grail, it would've been that man.

She hated to complement him and as far as they stood she would kill him on sight for his betrayal if the ever crossed paths again but regardless of that she couldn't deny that Kiritsugu was good at what he did. The best even.

Which was why she had determined that she keep slightly ahead of her Master at all times and be extra careful upon entering this neighborhood. Caution that paid off when a Servant seemingly dropped out of the sky and landed in the middle of the street before drawing two small daggers. Naturally King Arturia Pendragon charged at her fellow servant with intent to take his head their and then.

Their wasn't even so much as time to blink between drawing his weapons and having to block the missile that was without a doubt the Servant of the Saber colliding with him. Face to Face, emerald eyes to sapphire eyes, man to woman and Knight against Shinobi, the two blondes ground their wind wreathed blades against each other, though Naruto's kunai were still visible unlike his assailants.

The invisible blade was definitely a Noble Phantasm seeing as it snapped the ordinary kunai Naruto held in right hand after it had taken the strength of his opponents Noble Phantasm for a few seconds. Only the Hiraishin kunai stopped Saber from carving a path across Naruto's body from right shoulder to left hip. Of course she still had enough power behind her swing to blast Naruto backwards with sheer strength much to the ninja's surprise tossed a kunai at her face even as he went flying.

 _'She's quite strong for such a little thing.'_ Naruto thought to himself as Saber blurred towards him and struck another lightning fast blow. _'I could simply match her strength but that would be boring so I will go with speed. Besides I already showed Lancer a bunch of things so I need to show her something different.'_

All these decisions where made in the time it took a fly to flap its wings once and then Naruto kicked out, catching Saber's wrist with enough force to direct her sword slightly to the left of where it should have been and allowing him to dodge her vicious riposte. As she spun to engage him again Naruto produced another Kunai and threw it at her face once more which she deflect but in the time it took for her to raise her blade he had crossed the distance separating them and was in her space.

Redirecting her blade to block Naruto's next attack as he attempted to point blank stab her in the eye, Saber was surprised and caught off guard when Naruto suddenly appeared behind her with another kunai poised to stab her the kidney just as the one in front of her shimmered into an afterimage. A burst of Prana to her feet allowed her accelerate past the sound barrier away from Naruto even as she spun around and tried to bisect him while doing so but Naruto merely out-sped her sword swing and got in front of her before she could properly react.

The shift in the battle became rather obvious as Saber despite using Prana burst to enhance her speed found herself on the defensive and outpaced by a far more agile Naruto who was simply grinning like a loon the whole time. Clash after clash of chakra enhanced kunai and invisible sword occurred one time after another and yet Saber could barely do anything other than block or deflect Naruto as he toyed with her.

And yes he was toying with her. She could tell by the way he didn't even try to slash or stab at her with any sophisticated movements or skills. She already knew he was great at handling his kunai judging by the ease and accuracy with which he could throw them at her and she had already seen him attack with actual technique rather than this poke her in the back thing he was doing.

Saber was quickly loosing her composure as she felt her temper flare and finally fed up with this game Saber unleashed a blast of Prana that created a shockwave power enough to send Naruto flying backwards and then with a mighty roar she came at him with everything she had as he reeled.

Staggering from Saber's sudden offensive Naruto ducked under her first swing then sidestepped the second before skipping backwards and away from the third and fourth. Saber's attacks might as well have been lightning for all their speed and Naruto quickly found that he had not escape as unscathed as he first assumed. The skin around his neck was slightly split and leaking a few beads of blood from where the swordswoman's invisible blade had tried to decapitate him for the millionth time since he had started blitzing her with his speed while poking at her with his kunai but it was ultimately nothing to be concerned about.

Sure it was really tricky to determine the true length of her damn sword but it wasn't like Naruto was unfamiliar with fighting against people using invisible blades. Every ninja that ever used Wind Release technique's could be classified under that particular category and he'd been fighting them without problem for decades. Hell, switching to sensory mode would have made the fight almost too easy, almost because this was a servant and skill was a factor.

Of course before Naruto could escalate their short skirmish any further Shirou popped around the corner of the alley leading to the road they were fighting on and in doing so unfortunately placed himself squarely between Naruto and the enemy servant just as she was about to attack him. Cursing his Master's carelessness Naruto threw his Flying Thunder-god Kunai for the first time during the whole fight directly behind himself before Body Flickering towards his Master.

As if that was a sign in itself to attack, Saber sped forward with her blade poised to stab Shirou or him when he got their fast enough. Dipping into his true speed slightly Naruto became little more than a streak of light for a second before appearing in front of Shirou and then biting his thumb and smearing some blood on a sealing array tattooed into his wrist.

The ensuing cloud of smoke from activating the storage seal blocked out the enemies vision and allowed Naruto to place a hand on Shirou and teleport him to Hiraishin kunai he'd thrown behind himself earlier without anyone seeing exactly what he did in that split second the smoke obscured them. Meanwhile his free hand retrieved the new weapon he'd just summoned and parried Saber's latest sword strike with impressive results.

The **Truth Seeking Ball/Gudou Dama** that he had shifted into the form of a Tanto not only held against the invisible Noble Phantasm but utterly dispelled the wind surrounding it revealing...a sword. No, that felt wrong. Just calling it a sword was far too simple a description for the bladed weapon pressed against his **TSB** Tanto.

It was magnificent, majestic, dream-like and utterly Victorious for one. As in this weapon utterly radiated Victory which in turn meant for all its gold and blue decorative colors it could only be one particular weapon. A sword so majestic that any one who saw it could not fail to recognize the identity of its wielder. The blade laying naked before his eyes was unquestionably the Sword of Promised Victory which meant the woman before him was.

"Hello your Majesty, it really is an honor to run into you in this little war." Naruto said as he stared the beautiful King of Britain in her beautiful worry-laced emerald eyes.

Fortunately before anything could escalate further her master, a young girl about Shirou's age with brown hair done up in pigtails and aqua-blue eyes, who up until that point had been quietly standing on the sidelines finally spoke up saying. "Saber wait."

That single command made Saber stop and back up from Naruto, blade still ready to defend herself and her Master should he reengage them. Naruto found his respect for the King rising a bit, for her never dropping her guard even as she was willing to be diplomatic. He on the other decided be rather casual about everything.

"So what can I do for you this evening ladies." Naruto asked as his TSB returned to its ball form and hovered next to his hand leaving no question about how fast he could draw his weapon should the situation call for it. "Because as fierce as her Majesty is with a blade in hand, it doesn't seem like you came all this way to pick a fight."

"Well you are right about that. Thankfully all our worries are assuaged and my school mate is still breathing. Ain't that right Emiya-kun!" Saber's master replied, her eyes shifting between Naruto and Shirou as if they were the most fascinating beings in the world.

End Chapter...

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please leave a review to let me know what you think. Until next time ScarletAesir out.


	2. The Strongest Servant!

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything, thank you for reminding me. The Narutoverse and the Nasuverse remain Masashi Kishimoto and Kinoko Nasu's intellectual property.

 **A/N:**

I am still alive and kicking people. Sorry the chapter took so long but when I was 98% of the way through chapter two a couple of you guys decided to let me have it with your reviews. Long story short, their was a lot of revising and restructuring of the story. Honestly I would have preferred to wait another month to release this but my best friend will have my head if I don't do this now.

 **Falvern:** I blame you for most of the delays, a reviewer as passionate as you can only make me a better writer and improve this story. I will somewhat adjust the story in regards to your advise on the Throne of Heroes and explain why he is able to identify Lancer so easily but Naruto will still remain a Warden. As for pairings, I am dedicated to making it work realistically and to the benefit of the overall story so yeah I am sure. It ending up as a harem is more a side effect of future events I have planned than something Naruto is at least initially actively pursuing and every girl in Naruto's harem has an important purpose. The 27 Dead Apostles Ancestors is a thing in this world but how they will come into play will be decided much later. Most importantly though, this is not any form of the Fate Route as you know them, that went out the window the minute Naruto was summoned.

 **Spartanonxy:** Thanks for the advise, I am still figuring it all out and will try to smoothen out all the wrinkles in the way the story flows but its a process that will probably take time. One thing you probably won't ever be short of in this story is battles though, I don't know why I enjoy writing them so much. Nevertheless your advise opened my eyes to some avenues I hadn't considered so thank you.

 **AK-103:** Yep Naruto will be very important to Shirou and what the redhead becomes later on.

So that I don't take up another page with this authors note let me just say I am so very grateful for all your reviews whether you they were a long and descriptive or short and simple. You guys light a fire in me and make me wanna do my best. However when it come to pairings, I don't want to make the harem too big or it will straight up kill the story so if some of the girls you suggest don't end up in this story. I plan to release one or two more NarutoxFate crossover stories at some point in the future when I get writers block. The girls you suggest will probably end up their, though I simply can't see Jeanne agreeing to be part of a harem. Now on with the story.

* * *

Chapter 2: The Strongest Servant!

"What is my wish? Well their isn't anything I currently want that I can't get with my own power rather than depending on some over-hyped magical relic. I suppose that means I don't have a wish for the grail, what about you Master?"

– Naruto to Shirou

/ | \

It was with a certain amount of envy that Tohsaka Rin observed Uzumaki Naruto the servant that her Schoolmate Emiya Shirou had summoned as they made their way towards the small Church the overseer of the Holy Grail War was located in. Rin was confident in the fact that she had gotten the luck of the draw when she summoned the Legendary King Arthur as Saber. How could any other Servant be the beautiful King of Knight's equal. She was so...glorious.

In the Holy Grail War's a Saber's stats were already skewed to give them an edge against other Servant classes and King Arthur was a Servant of a caliber all her own. Logically speaking, for the purpose of winning the 5th Holy Grail War and completing the Heaven's Feel Ritual, Rin couldn't have gained a better Servant.

That said, she knew of hundreds of mage families that would've slaughtered thousands of innocents just to have a chance at the opportunity that Shirou was now getting for free. A chance to learn magecraft from the Age of the gods, and truthfully she couldn't deny that she was one of them.

Honestly Rin found herself for once truly torn between envying Shirou's position and being satisfied with her own. Naruto was a powerful servant who was most likely the Caster of the war though he declined to name his Class. He came from a time when the gap between Magic and Magecraft was significantly narrower and he was schooled in an older more powerful Thaumaturgical system than modern day magi.

If Shirou no matter how untalented a magus he was, successfully managed to tap into this ancient knowledge and learn even a little, he would become a formidable magus in the future. _'He might possibly even earn himself a Sealing Designation if he truly is as careless and naive as he appears to be.'_ She thought to herself in mix of frustration and envy.

She on the other hand was not some talent-less, no name, third-rate, wannabe magus. She was a genius and an Average One at that, with a decent amount of high quality circuits giving her access to a decent amount of high quality prana to enact a wide variety of miracles. Naruto's tutelage to put it simply would not be wasted on her if he took her as a student.

It was not in anything Naruto had said but simply dozens of minor observations Rin had made over the last hour as she, Saber, Emiya-kun and Naruto got acquainted with one another over tea.

 **Flashback...**

Rin watched with a fascinated kind of awe as Emiya Shirou's servant sat in the corner of the room meditating or doing some other exercise that was the equivalent. It was difficult to say exactly what he was doing, other than that he was sitting so still as to call it statue-like with only the slightest rising and falling of his chest to even show he was breathing. That and the fact that with his every breath he seemed to be affecting the ambient mana around them and altering it...somehow.

She was already very impressed with the Servant that had not only stood up to the likes of Saber in open combat and outpaced the King of Britain in pure speed but put Saber on the back foot for most of that time they were fighting. It was only Shirou's foolish intervention in the fight that had forced his Servant to reveal an unknown form of teleportation and draw its own Noble Phantasm in his defense. Of course Rin was completely positive that Saber would have slaughtered her opponent if she had decided to get serious just then.

Nevertheless their could be no doubt that the black sphere the Servant had drawn was a Noble Phantasm...not with the kind of metaphysical weight to it she could clearly feel around the sphere in question. Said Noble Phantasm was a pitch black shape-shifting sphere capable of casually dispelling the sheath of air that surrounded and kept Saber's Excalibur invisible. A sheath that was in itself a minor Noble Phantasm known as Invisible air.

This action alone proved that this Servant was a hero of some substance but for all her research into past heroes she could not come up with a single hero whose legend involved someone even remotely resembling Shirou's servant. All Rin could guess at was that, he had to be a mage due to his interest in her ability to repair all the damage done to the yard during his fight with Lancer but whether he was the Caster of the War or some other servant with a magus background was unknown.

Right after she had stopped Saber from further trying to skewer Emiya or his Servant the duo had invited her and Saber into their home to talk. Saber had volunteered to stand guard outside but the other Servant had merely made a gesture before a massively powerful Bounded Field had shimmered into existence around the yard negating the need for such a thing. It was an immensely powerful barrier of an unfamiliar design, yet it would take magus standing within a meter of it to even find it and that was if they were even looking.

Rin as thanks had taken the liberty to repair the shattered windows and the small crater from where Lancer and Emiya's servant had been fighting earlier. An act that had surprisingly wowed both Emiya Shirou and his Servant albeit for differing reasons it seemed. The servant was more surprised at the progression of magecraft and its modern day usage rather than at the fact that Rin had repaired every window in the Emiya mansion. The same could not be said about Shirou who was from what she quickly gathered simply a poor magus.

It was honestly impressive that Shirou had summoned such a powerful Servant, though she felt as if she was forgetting something important when it came to his power. Rin supposed that it was perhaps a bit of good karma towards Shirou in return for all the crap he'd been put through earlier that night. Namely taking Lancer's spear through the heart and then getting attacked by the blue haired spearman a second time as soon as he finally got home.

Of course before they could all get down to business Shirou declared that he would make some tea and other refreshment for them before disappearing into **his** kitchen. That had been 15 minutes ago and in that time Shirou's servant had quietly found a seat in the corner and begun meditating while Saber sat at the low living room table in the seiza position as regally as the King she was, waiting on Shirou's refreshments.

Despite the silence both servants had a larger than life air about them that made even their silence seem more like a statement saying **'I am here! Don't you dare not look at me!'**.

Rin quickly found herself losing to the temptation to question the Servant's about anything and everything related to them and their past lives, especially Emiya's servant. She was a Magus after all and mystical knowledge was her kind's lifeblood. It was only natural then that her question found itself out off her mouth before she was even aware of the fact that it had been her who had asked it. "What are you doing?"

Rin's face morphed into a visage of mortification at ruining the somewhat surreal mood generated by the comfortable silence the two Servant's had fallen into and found herself hating the sheer enthusiasm in her question. She honestly did not expect Emiya's servant to reply, however when he did it began a conversation that would be most informative.

Without opening his eyes he responded. "Even if I tried to explain it to you in words that you could comprehend, I don't think you would understand."

A little upset that Emiya's Servant was looking down on her she snapped back before she even realized what she was doing. "I am quite knowledgeable about magecraft. A genius really so try me."

That got the Servant's attention and he finally opened his eyes to level Rin with a look she couldn't quite decipher, albeit her attention was more on the fact that the twin Sapphire gems that where his eyes were now different somehow. It finally clicked to her that it was his pupil's that like any normal person's pupils where once two black dots that had changed.

In stead they had been replaced with a silvery cross composed of a slit intersecting a bar while the irises surrounding them visibly glowed with barely restrained power. It was only for a moment, a time period a normal human wouldn't even bother taking note of but one in which she sensed Saber's unease skyrocket through their bond. Rin instantly found herself pinned in place as surely as if the weight of the world had come crashing down on her shoulders while the servants gaze pierced through her like an angry god that had decided to weigh and judge her soul.

A moment later however the feeling had vanished as the servant closed his eyes again and looked away as if nothing had just happened, an action which made Saber relax again. Finally after a moment of silence the servant said in a surprisingly friendly to her albeit slightly indifferent voice. "My bond with my master was poorly constructed and I am sure you have already figured out that his abilities as a magus are not even worth mentioning. In short he cannot sustain me with the Mana I need to tether myself to this plane of existence."

"Doesn't that mean you will soon cease to exist unless something is done." Rin asked a little concerned for the Servant who was pretty much Shirou's only lifeline in this magical war. She couldn't bare the thought of how devastated her sister would be if the rust haired boy were to perish in the war.

"Perhaps if it were any other servant summoned that would be a concern but luckily he summoned me and I have no intention of abandoning Shirou for a more skilled master just because he can't supply me with Mana. I have long since mastered the ability to take in large amounts of Mana from the environment to refill my reserves." He said this with an air of pride that made it sound as if it was an extraordinary achievement for someone who had clearly been a magus in life. Rin didn't quite get it though after all wasn't that how all mages performed greater rituals, by taking in Mana through their magic circuits. Still it answered one thing.

"That's what you are doing right now isn't it. You are sucking in all the ambient mana around us." Rin declared as the pieces clicked into place, as if she was suddenly aware of a blindfold that had been obscuring her vision and was just removing it for the first time. She was surprised though that she hadn't sensed the mana draining from the area, then again Saber would've have reacted had she been even slightly adversely affected. "But that could be harmful to the environment and innocent people around."

"Which is why I am first enriching the Mana with this meditative exercise." He simply responded as if educating an ignorant child.

Okay now she was a bit baffled. The idea that some types of magical energy was more pure and potent than others was not strange to her. Every magus worth their salt knew that magical energy was on the decline and magecraft from the Age of the Gods was significantly more powerful than its modern day equivalent. However this sounded like he was reversing that degradation somehow. "Enriching the Mana?"

"To put it in your words. As I inhale I take in Mana from nature along with Prana released by Lancer and myself in our battle earlier. I then mixing it with a portion of my Od until it is perfectly balanced, at which point I detoxify the created Prana by removing everything from it that did not yet exist in the age when I still walked the Earth. Finally as I exhale I released the purified Prana back into the environment, keeping only a small amount for myself and gradually refilling my reserves." He finished much to Rin's bafflement.

"I am sorry did you say detoxify?" Rin squeaked, this implied he not only had a very deep understanding of what magical energy should be like but the power to revert it to its original form or at least the form it was in when he was still alive. This Servant's knowledge was simply invaluable to the Mage's Association.

 _'And if I could acquire such secrets...'_ Rin's mind trailed of as she greedily envisioned what the future might hold. Sealing Designations or wealth and Noble Rankings were equally a possibility should she present such knowledge to the Mages Association. She would need to decide whether it was worth the risks. Of course she was drawn back into the conversation as Emiya's servant continued talking.

"Back then what you call Mana was far more pure and potent than its modern day equivalent. Humans could not just draw it into themselves, at least not without enormous Prana reserves and training or the consequences would be severe. Look." The servant then gestured to a potted plant in the house and some plants in a nearby flowerbed that Rin quite vividly remembered as being half-dead. Only the potted plant looked greener and healthier than she remembered it a few minutes ago and the plants in the nearby flowerbed were blooming with rather vibrant flowers. "You can already see the affects of the enriched magical energy on the nearby plants."

All around them the plants seemed to be...not growing but blooming as if it was the beginning of Spring. Gawking at what the servant was doing by essentially just breathing Rin yelled. "But, that's ridiculous! Its taking at most two seconds between your exhale and inhale. Do you mean to tell me you are accomplishing this whole process in that minuscule time-span? Even so were do all the toxins go if you are detoxifying the ambient Mana? This is impossible."

A proud smirk crossed the servants face as he mysteriously replied. "I know. I am pretty awesome right."

Before Rin could continue this conversation however Shirou entered with refreshments. It was just green tea and Japanese sweets to go with it but by the Root did it smell divine. "Sorry for keeping you waiting Tohsaka-san, Saber-san but seeing as you are guests in my home it is my duty to be hospitable hosts and provide suitable refreshments."

Saber seemed to agree with this wholeheartedly even as she moved besides Rin and discreetly tested the food and drink for poisons much to Emiya's servant's clear amusement while the master in question remained unawares. A nod from Saber was all the assurance she needed to tuck in, though the blissful look on Arturia's face looked awfully suspicious.

It was a few minutes later, after the admittedly delicious snack that Emiya's servant finally spoke up as he came out of his meditation. "Now that, you've snacked on my masters refreshments and rested for a bit, how about we get down to business. The first and most crucial part of which being formal introductions."

"Ah...a wonderful idea seeing as I can't keep mentally labeling you as Emiya-kun's servant." Rin stammered over her words trying to ignore how delicious the food had tasted.

Nodding once Naruto began. "Seeing as I suggested the idea, I will go first. My name is Naruto of the Uzumaki clan. 7th Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves and former Jinchuuriki of the 9 tailed beasts. As for my class as a Servant in this war I will leave that to you ladies to guess."

Each of the tittles sounded important and Hokage despite no one knowing what it meant sounded like some kind of Leadership role. Though Rin, Shirou and Saber all wondered what the heck it was that a Fireshadow did, not to mention what were tailed beasts and Jinchuuriki.

 _'Was he in contact with some kind of Phantasmal Beasts or root forbid Divine Beasts? And the power of Human Sacrifice, what is that suppose to mean? Could it be some kind of ritual?'_ Rin pondered silently.

Wiping some crumbs from her cheeks with a napkin she for some reason had on her Saber spoke up with all the charisma of the King she was. "I will go next. Seeing as Naruto and my master have already figured out my identity, there is no point in hiding it from you master of Naruto Uzumaki. My name is Arturia Pendragon, King of Britain and the Servant of the Saber class in this war."

Rin smiled at her servant. Saber was the very image of a King and even though a Servant was in essence a super powerful familiar, she dared not treat Saber as anything less than the King she was. However it was now her turn so she spoke up and declared her own name and tittles as the two servants before her had just done. "My name is Rin of the Tohsaka mage clan, Master of Saber and Second Owner of Fuyuki city."

While not as grand as a tittle such as King of Britain declaring that she was the Second Owner of Fuyuki city did lend a certain Gravitas to her position. Claiming she was from a clan of mages even if it was just six generations old reminded everyone that she had roots in the moonlit world and was not to be underestimated. It also drew a subtle comparison to Naruto, the other person who had claimed to be of a clan.

"I'm Emiya Shirou, Master of Naruto and a novice magus." Shirou on the other hand could only provide a lame introduction in comparison to those that went before him, he also completely missed the way that Saber flinched at the mention of the name Emiya. Even Rin who watched the redhead in amusement as he looked down in embarrassment at the lack tittles to his name failed to notice this minor detail but Naruto did not and merely narrowed his eyes imperceptibly.

"Yeah, about that novice thing. I am working on fixing his lack of skill in magecraft." Naruto said with a confident smirk even as he added. "While I doubt he will ever be as much of badass as me, I am gonna make damn sure he gets close."

 **Flashback end...**

Their meeting had gone on for a bit longer as Rin explained in more detail pretty much everything Naruto had apparently already covered about the Holy Grail War. Then they decided to simply go and visit her former teacher, Father Kotomine Kirei at the old Church who was the overseer of the war for more information the Holy Grail War. Which was what they were currently doing.

Rin frowned at Naruto's smirking visage as he winked her way. He knew full well that as a magus she naturally had a hunger for thaumaturgical knowledge, especially the kind that existed during the age of the gods and he was dangling it in front of her. She couldn't afford to isolate herself from Shirou at this point because doing so meant that Naruto and all his glorious knowledge would get away from her.

She also couldn't target Shirou to Eliminate Naruto from the competition if he turned hostile because Naruto did not need Shirou to sustain himself as he demonstrated earlier by drawing in Mana directly from the environment. That and she had grown to admire Shirou in her own way over the years so she would rather not see him get hurt. Sakura would also murder her if she didn't do her best to protect him from this war now that he was more or less involved.

VvV

As Shirou and Rin talked with the Priest Kotomine Kirei – a conversation that a clone of Naruto was listening in on disguised quite literally as a fly on the wall – Naruto decided to approach Saber and get a few questions answered. Well really one question but it would in turn answer several more.

Dropping from the roof of the church where he had been standing guard from an over-watch position he landed audibly a short distance off from the armored knight so as not to startle her and then quickly approached her. Saber tensed for a moment as her fellow blonde approached her but did not raise her weapon in his direction despite remaining on guard in his presence. They were not officially allies after all and their was a chance however infinitesimal that Naruto could be trying to eliminate her now for some reason.

Thankfully for King 'Arthur' that was not Naruto's objective as he spoke up. "Saber, mind if I ask you something? Well." He paused for a moment to correct himself. "More like state a few observations i've made and then ask a question afterwards."

Saber frowned for a moment and asked. "Shouldn't you be on the look out from up there." She motioned with her head to the Church's steeple before adding. "In case of attack. Your field of view and range would be greater there and then when our master's have finished we can discuss whatever you have on your mind from a safe location."

Naruto smiled as he quickly understood Saber's concern for her master...no, for both their masters. She also wrongly believed that he was not doing his duty as a heroic spirit by focusing on standing guard in order to keep his own master at the very least safe. He needed to alleviate such concerns. "I don't need a high vantage point to stand guard against danger. In fact staying hidden is more effective for someone like me. I can sense anything with hostile or even simply dark intentions within a half kilometer range and have taken measure to defend against that. I just thought this was a good chance to talk without either of our masters listening in."

This was just one of the reasons why he had a clone tag along with Rin and Shirou as they talked to Father Kotomine. For a House of the Lord, that church was housing some seriously negative emotions and it was taking a considerable amount of will power on Naruto's part to not bust in their and deal with whatever was the cause. Thankfully he knew for a fact Rin and Shirou were okay due to the clone not dispelling or using the Hiraishin tag he'd subtly placed on Shirou and temporarily linked with Rin to evacuate the two.

Fortunately his explanation was good enough to convince the green eyed blonde swordswoman who finally nodded to her sapphire eyed counterpart and said. "Go ahead then Naruto."

"Since I was summoned into this war i've been making a bunch of observations of a number minor but curious things. My ability to sense certain emotions helps when it come to that and i've noticed a couple things related to you." Naruto stated fully aware of how Arturia grew increasingly alarmed the more he spoke to her.

Their was a nervous tilt in her voice as she asked. "Things like?"

Naruto raised a finger before saying. "A.) You flinch every time your master calls my master Emiya-kun. It's too fast for a human to perceive, even one as talented as Rin but blatantly obvious to our kind. I honestly didn't think much of it, not until I made my second observation."

A second finger quickly joined the first as he continued explaining his observations to Saber. "B.) You got distinctly more and more uncomfortable the closer you got to Shirou's home, that and Sad. This at the very least hints at some kind of familiarity with the place, that or a tragic memory of something similar from your past. This left me alarmed but still it could've have all been a coincidence. At least that was my thought until I made my final observation."

"And that was?" This time as Arturia replied their was a certain amount of frustration that managed to escape her calm mask and enter her voice. Naruto had noted its build up with every point he raised but ignored it in favor of answering the King.

A third finger joined the previous too as he said. "C.) You have a bond with my Master."

"Heh?" That was clearly not what the legendary King of Knights had been expecting to hear and it showed in how baffled her face suddenly became.

Naruto decided to simply explain his reasoning rather than ogle the King for her sudden cute and unmasked expression. "Admittedly this was actually my first observation but I didn't quite understand it at the time. Shirou had just been roughed up by Lancer pretty badly and I was checking over his injuries when I came across it. A seemingly one way bond through which he was receiving Prana from an outside source. It was not much, in fact it was akin to trying to fill a bathtub with little more than a stead stream of water droplet. Possible but it would take a while. However, then you and Rin showed up and that stead trickle of droplets widened into a steady stream of flowing water as if someone had opened the valve ever so slightly.

"Honestly the increase was not by much and you probably give off more Prana just moving around than he actually gets from you but that still leaves too many coincidences to ignore Saber. You are familiar with the Emiya name, the Emiya residence made you sad and you have a connection with the only Emiya living in that house." Naruto pointed out.

"Perhaps Shirou initiated this bond you speak of somehow?" Saber replied in a poor attempt to avoid the subject.

Of course Naruto simply replied. "That would be a legitimate point if you, me and Rin did not already know that my master was a piss poor magus to begin with. Both I and Rin have stated us much in your presence Saber so please King of Knights, stop trying to play the ignorant fool and answer truthfully. What is your connection to my Master and his family?"

"I don't know?" When Naruto narrowed his eyes Saber raised her hand to keep him from speaking and said. "I' had never even seen your Master until a few hours ago when Rin tried to save him after Lancer had stabbed him in the heart but I kept my distance then and was watching for Lancer in case he returned or another servant showed up."

"And his family, Emiya is his family name after all." Naruto questioned.

"This isn't the first time I have been summoned to this era. Seeing as Kotomine Kirei is the priest of that Church but was a participant in the war last time I was summoned, I can only guess that I am further in the future. Back then my Master was a man named Kiritsugu Emiya who was married to a Homunculus of the Einzbern clan named Irisviel von Einzbern. She was a truly beautiful soul, a pure being. He on the other hand..." Saber trailed off with a scowl that left no question to the feelings she had for her former Master.

And so Saber spent the next couple of minutes explaining to Naruto everything she could think of about the Emiya and Einzbern clan and her connection with them, including the child of Kiritsugu and Irisviel, one Illyasviel von Einzbern. For his part Naruto merely listened, agreeing and nodding when appropriate but remaining quiet for the most part. This seemed to be an issue that weighed heavy on Saber's heart so he figured he could just be their for her as a friend. Yes, he could see her as his friend.

It would definitely be the start of one of his less bloody friendships considering his past and how most of his friendships started. Haku turned him into a pincushion, Zabuza threatened and even tried to skewer him through at least one of his vital points if not for his sensei Kakashi. Gaara had been insane and quite literally tried to crush/asphyxiate/kill him and several of his friends with a giant sand monster. Sasuke drove his lightning encased fist through his chest.

Orochimaru and Kabuto both tried to kill him more times than he could count. Obito nearly destroyed the world and their were many many others, yet Naruto considered each of them his friends. Some died right after reforming their ways while it took others time to get on an even remotely friendly basis with him, for example Orochimaru.

It was a while later that Rin and Shirou exited the Church. Shirou looking rather pissed and with the dispersal of his clone he understood why. The last war, the one that Saber claimed to have been a part of, Naruto through his clone learned occurred a decade ago and ended in a devastating climax. It had led to a massive fire that consumed the lives of over 500 people and destroyed a significant portion of the Shinto city, all of which was caused by the Holy Grail War.

The Priest had been egging Shirou on to participate in the current war so that he could prevent such devastation by winning the Holy Grail himself. Shirou had agreed to this but had also made it abundantly clear that he was less than interested in the Holy Grail itself and more importantly wanted to ensure that the innocent were not harmed like in the previous war. It was something Naruto could easily get behind seeing as he had no desire for the Holy Grail either and shouldn't have even been capable of being summoned.

Smiling at his master Naruto gently said. "It seems you've come to a life changing decision."

Shirou paused in thought for a moment before looking Naruto directly in the eye with a fire lit in soul and saying. "Naruto, I'm going to participate in this Holy Grail War as a master. Will you consent to serving a novice like me?"

According to his clone and his emotion sensing abilities Naruto knew his Master had been despairing when he learned of the cause of Fuyuki Fires. Such despair could only mean some kind of personal experience and more importantly Shirou was genuinely afraid of repeat of that event ever occurring which had spurred him to join the war. That the trigger for the calamity had been an unworthy master touching the grail if the Priest was to be believed only further convinces Shirou he needed to fight. However...

"Absolutely not." Naruto replied without hesitation much to everyone's surprise before he added. "Have you already forgotten our contract. I am the teacher and you are the student in this relationship. If I let you simply do as you wish you will get us both killed or worse just your self."

"But the Holy Grail War has brought so much suffering to this city. I can't stand by and let innocents get caught in the crossfire." Shirou argued with a passion flaring up from the depths of his scarred soul.

"I am aware of the Great Fuyuki Fire and that it was the result of the previous Holy Grail War. I am also perfectly okay with backing you in your goal to limit innocent casualties in this war even as I train you into a magical warrior that will make the mages of this Era weep in envy." Naruto took a moment to let his words sink in before saying. "That said, even if we are called Servants I will **not** serve at the whim of my own student, call it the privileged of those in the position to teach."

Being called a servant already stung Naruto's pride but he could handle that. Being led into battle by novice magus not even a thousand years old on the other hand was a blow he doubted his Pride could have ever survived. No, it was better for everyone if he took the initiative and used the full-breadth of his experience or rather what little was allowed him as the Servant of the Archer class (And even that was the equivalent of several human life times) to guide them both through the war.

"Eh! But you said-" Shirou began still struggling to process the strange reasoning of his Servant but was interrupted by Naruto.

"I wouldn't serve your whims. However teaching you, protecting you, guiding you and supporting you in your goals are entirely within the realm of an educators duties and the Holy Grail War itself will simply serve as a part of my classroom. That is the nature of our relationship at this point so learn my lessons well brat." Naruto finished spreading his hands wide to each side of himself as if to encompass the world in his arms but then added as an after thought. "Also I am infinitely more experienced in warfare than you so don't go assuming you can just take the lead and do better than me. That's just insulting."

VvV

The walk home was largely in silence as everyone contemplated Naruto's words. It wasn't a strange thing to hear a servant declare that they will take the lead in the war rather than their masters but most servant were willing to accommodate their masters. That said, how a Master and Servant interact and the relationship they formed was entirely up to said Master-Servant duo and Shirou was quite frankly unsuitable for the role of a Master in the Holy Grail War.

Naruto had yet to get a good handle on his masters character and personality but he was beginning to understand bits and pieces of the boy, like looking at incomplete puzzle. The boy was polite and quiet until you roused his passion which seemed revolve around helping people and to a lesser content his cooking skills of all things. Their was a certain pride in the way Shirou carried himself as he watched the Legendary King Arthur and her Master Tohsaka Rin wolf down the sweets and beverages he had prepared for them before it was decided that they would go see the overseer of the war.

The Great Fuyuki Fire added another piece to the puzzle, extreme survivors guilt if Naruto's empathy abilities were anything to go by. Then their was everything Saber had told him about Kiritsugu Emiya and Irisviel von Einzbern, the boys family who seem to have died in the past. It wasn't confirmed of course and he would need to talk to Shirou about it at some point if only to tell the boy he had a sister out their somewhere.

All in all, Shirou was a messed up kid who had gone through something extremely tragic and now wanted to help people probably as penance for surviving but also cause he genuinely seemed to enjoy doing it. Their was also that Hero of Justice bit that Father Kotomine had spouted before they left the church. Another thing to question his master about, of course everything changed at that exact moment.

"Oh boy." Naruto muttered under his breath as he froze mid-step and shivered nervously. Something had just stepped into his range and caused a massive spike in his negative emotion sensing ability. The amount of bloodlust, hatred and quite frankly irrational rage was staggering, even for someone like him who had faced off against enraged Tailed Beast and lived.

Even before befriending Kurama and the other tailed beasts he had fought when he walked the Earth, when enraged they had always had a quality that was best described as Justified. They hated humans because humans kept sealing them away in Jinchuuriki (The power of Human sacrifice) and so they retaliated by killing humans wherever possible. However this in turn made humans fear them and consider sealing them away into specially chosen hosts known as Jinchuuriki a necessary evil.

It was a perpetual cycle of hatred but even in that hatred and rage their was reason. Tailed Beasts felt justified in the death and destruction they caused because of the actions of humans, while humans felt justified in their actions because of the death and destruction the Tailed beasts wrought.

This rage and hatred however was not only irrational but all-consuming in a way that defied rationality and **that** just had to be it. This was madness, he was staring madness in the face and it was grating on his own sanity. In which case only one Servant in the Holy Grail War fit the parameters for causing such an anomaly in his emotion sensing abilities, this could only be Berserker.

"Naruto-san! Are you okay?" Rin asked in concern for the servant who had frozen in place and was visibly sweating as his face scrunched up in a grimace. Saber looked around nervously but the blond ninja in question ignored them.

"Are you going to continue hiding despite all the killing intent and aggression you are directing at my Master...Beserker and your Master!" Naruto spoke softly but with a voice that somehow carried on the wind itself into the distance.

VvV

Illyasviel von Einzbern felt genuinely surprised when she was so easily called out and her Servant identified by the Servant her brother had summoned. Sure it was not unrealistic to think that even from her distant range a servant might have the ability to identify her as master especially for an Archer. That said, the mere fact that he had easily identified her and her Servant from a distance of half a kilometer on a foggy night without even once looking their way spoke volumes of the Servant's tracking skill.

With little more than a thought Berserker gently cradled her in his massive arms and then crossed the distance in a blink of an eye before before setting her back down. All the while he remained in spirit form, showing little more than a distortion in the air to indicate he was even there. For someone as famed as her servant was for his legendary strength he was surprisingly gentle and more importantly she trusted him completely.

Of course she was in the presence of two servants and two masters, it wouldn't do to remain introspective. She had no doubt that if they tried anything Berserker would instantly crush them, he was the strongest after all but it was only polite to properly introduce herself. She had come here with a reason after all.

"Oh! This is unexpected. With my servant in spirit form I was quite sure I could get a bit closer to you before Beserker and I were even detected. It's already quite the impressive feat that you could detect me and Beserker by the bloodlust he was emitting but even more impressive that you correctly identified him as Beserker of all servants." The fairy-like girl said with musical trill to her voice before turning her attention to Shirou and adding. "It seems you summoned a better servant than I expected Shirou Onii-chan. Not that it will make a difference against my Beserker."

VvV

It was something of a surreal sight for Naruto to watch the silver haired, red eyed fairy-like little girl dressed in some strange purple clothing from the modern age, curtsy to them as she introduced herself. The image only mostly ruined by that **thing** behind her that looked like...well honestly he didn't have a proper frame of reference cause it was most certainly **not** human.

It was a massive hulk of gray flesh and muscle, dressed in little more than battle skirt and wielding and a slab of stone shaped like an axe or was it sword. It had wild black locks that flowed down its back and mismatched red and yellow eyes but most of all it was big. Towering over everyone present like a giant, a distinction that was made even more clear when he stood next to the little girl that was his master.

Said Master took that opportunity to introduce herself. "My name is Illyasviel von Einzbern! I am sure Tohsaka Rin over their knows who I am or rather the family I represent."

Of course upon the enemy Master naming herself, Naruto and Arturia shared a worried look as the Archer class servant asked. "Saber? She can't mean?"

Nodding her head grimly Saber responded."Indeed that is Iri's daughter but..." She trailed off with a frown.

"But what?" Naruto demanded a little impatient.

Ignoring his tone Saber answered. "She hasn't aged since I last saw her years ago."

Blinking in surprise Naruto said. "Okay, that can't be normal even if it has something do with Magecraft. In which case was it something deliberately done to her or does she have some kind of condition." His mind trailed off trying to come up with some kind of explanation.

"Dwell on that Later Naruto. This is a volatile situation that could erupt into violence at any moment and I am not sure we can take that Servant." Saber's stern rebuke brought Naruto's attention back to the situation at hand.

He frowned slightly at the doubt in the King of Knights' voice as she referenced Berserk before smirking as a solution began to form in his mind, Naruto said. "Don't worry I got this." He then turned to his student and asked. "Shirou, I know its only been a couple of hours but do you trust me?"

"Huh?" It was the most eloquent answer he could manage under the pressure of Berserker's presence and the sheer innocence in Naruto's voice as he asked the question. Their was just something about the way Naruto was looking at him and had asked that question that made Shirou want to believe in his Servant at that moment despite the danger of Berserker's presence. Shirou couldn't explain it.

"I might have to gamble with your very life in a moment and you will probably not like that so I need you to be able to trust me." Naruto explained to Shirou before asking once more. "Are you willing to trust your teacher to know what he's doing?"

Again that overwhelming presence the blond radiated that made him want to put his faith in the Servant pulsed and grew stronger than before. This wasn't charisma or at least it wasn't just charisma, it was something more and before Shirou knew it he had answered. "Yes."

The smile Naruto gave Shirou just then was positively blinding and the effect of Berserker's presence seemed...diminished. Naruto then turned to Illyasviel and said. "Based on the way that you called Shirou, Onii-chan earlier and on the fact that you called yourself Illyasviel von Einzbern. Am I correct in assuming that you are the child of Emiya Kiritsugu and Irisviel von Einzbern and thus Shirou is your adopted brother."

"Correct." She replied somewhat icily.

Naruto frowned at this wondering what had triggered that reaction before asking. "You don't seem to have a lot of love for your brother so what do you want with him?"

"I am sure a servant as insightful as you can guess what it is I want." The tone of Illya's voice made it clear that this was meant somewhat as an insult to Naruto and a means of evading the question but an insult that begrudgingly acknowledged his insight.

"I was only summoned a couple of hours ago so I don't know that much about your family history yet. But if that finely honed killing intent that **you** are directing at Shirou is any indicator then at the very least, you want to cripple my master. May I ask what he did to deserve your wrath?" Naruto had not missed Illya's killing intent that was directed at Shirou and it was quite frankly impressive. The other reason he had focused on Illya was because he didn't want to focus on Berserker, the Servant's madness was gnawing at his own mind via his empathy powers.

"..." Illya of course remained silent.

"Then how about this. If I defeat your servant then you answer my question? If I lose then Saber on her honor as a Knight won't interfere and you get to do whatever it is you plan to with your brother. Of course me loosing means my death." Naruto suggested. Illya held all the cards in this situation as far as Naruto was concerned. Sure he was confident he could beat Berserker but just killing the enemy Servant and Master was not and had never been his way.

In every fight Naruto had ever been in his life he sought to understand his enemy's and drag them back to the light. He never agreed with their reasoning but he believed they deserved a chance at some form of salvation and for someone to know why they did what they did. If that enemy reformed and turned into a friend then awesome and if not, then at least he tried. It was the rare unreasonable existence like Kaguya who he simply could not understand and considering she was quite literally an alien well...that wasn't too surprising.

Illya however was human and the sister of his Master, if he could help them achieve some kind of resolution then he would throw his all into it even if it meant fighting Berserker. After all wasn't this what it meant to be a Hero.

If she attacked however...things would get a lot more complicated and that opportunity for resolution he had developed a 7th sense for would slip out of his grasp. Hope was such a terribly difficult thing for Naruto to resist.

Illya remained silent as she seemed to weigh his suggestion before asking."How do I know Saber would honor such an agreement? Not to mention even if she would agree to such a thing, Rin is a true Magus and would not hesitate to use a command seal on Saber to force her to break such a pact if doing so gave Rin any tactical advantage."

She had a point Naruto acknowledged not that Illya seemed particularly worried about such a thing occurring. Turning to his fellow Servant Naruto asked. "Saber would you be willing to swear an oath to not interfere on your honor as a Knight?"

It was a vague enough description that it prevented anyone listening in from realizing that she was in fact the King of Knights, Arthur Pendragon rather than just some random Knight summoned in the war and thankfully Saber caught on and agreed to the request. "I vow to remain an observer only and not interfere in this fight unless me or my master are directly attacked at which point any agreement will be voided. This I do on my honor as a Knight."

"Thank you. As for Rin well..." Naruto trailed off before turning to the Tohsaka magus in question and saying. "Rin, you are not allowed to interfere in this fight in anyway, use your command spells to make Saber betray her vow or attack the enemy master directly. Got it."

"Wh-." Rin never even finished that first word.

 **Snap!**

In the quiet of the night the sound of Naruto's fingers snapping was rather audible even as Rin's eyes glazed over and she replied. "Understood sir." It was a voice that left no misinterpretation to the fact that she had been hypnotized by Naruto simply snapping his fingers. The potent amount of Prana emitted from said blondes fingers did nothing to disprove this either.

"Sir?" Muttered Naruto in amusement at the choice of address Rin subconsciously used for him as the technique took effect in her. It was one of only ten genjutsu he knew and it had taken him literal decades to create just this one. A sound based genjutsu inspired by Tayuya and Kin from Otogakure no Sato/The Hidden Sound Village. The chakra was transferred through sound into the ear and then into the brains neural pathways where it then overrode any thoughts in relation to whatever command he gave. It was not a feasible battle technique and it could be dispelled by any Chunin worth their salt in his day but the modern era was different and its effects more potent.

Of course his fellow blonde servant was anything but Happy with his actions and Naruto suddenly had to duck under the swing of Saber's invisible blade and then back flip away from the irate Servant to get some distance. "Wow, easy their Saber. I did not harm her in any way? I swear."

Rin's eyes cleared of the glazed look and she glared at Naruto demanding. "What did you do to me?"

Ignoring Rin, Naruto kept his gaze on Saber and said. "I simply put her under a...an illusion, hypnosis, mental restrictions...its difficult to explain with a single word what was commonly just referred to as an illusion back in my time. The meaning of the word has changed much since then, However Illya is right about your master. Rin might try to take advantage of the situation regardless of your will so I just made it so she can't. She is still herself, see."

Saber looked back at her master who looked frustrated for a moment as Rin glared at the Command Spells before shaking her head and saying. "I am fine, other than my inability to even focus on my Command Spells, act against Illya or interfere in this fight. Whatever that bastard did it was effective. However what's to stop Illya from attacking us?"

"Saber will protect you and if necessary she can grab you and run. Shirou on the other hand is my responsibility." Naruto calmly replied making everyone assume he had some kind of countermeasure for such a scenario.

"Interesting!" Illya said in an amused tone. "I agree to this, though I know its a complete waste of time seeing as you **can't** defeat Berserker. He is Greece's greatest hero and won't lose to anyone." She declared as if it was the law of God. To Naruto however she had just told him who Berserker was or at the very least significantly narrowed down that list. It seemed he wouldn't have to read the history in the prana Berserker would be emitting as they crossed blades to figure out his identity.

"Don't be too sure about that little miss. Now then let's ensure we have no unwanted observers." With that Naruto crossed his fingers in his most favorite hand-seal and four clones appeared around him before heading of in four different directions. Moments later a massive purple pyramid shaped barrier appeared around them before fading as if nothing was their.

"A bounded field." Rin declared once again amazed at the speed and power of the barriers Naruto erected even if it was completely lacking in any form of subtly this time but seeing as it was different from the earlier one she wondered about its purpose.

Thankfully for her curiosity's sake Naruto immediately explained. "The inside of this barrier for all intent and purposes is slightly out of phase with reality meaning it's almost impossible for anyone to spy on us. It was technique created to facilitate high level talks between diplomats back in my day. It prevents unwanted intrusion and most attempts at spying but is weak against techniques using spatial manipulation. I've made it big enough so that we have a square kilometer to ourselves now so when you are ready have Beserker come for me in the center."

With that Naruto disappeared in a swirl of leaves once more astonishing the mages present with his strange thaumaturgy and inadvertently convincing them that he was the Caster of the War. Of course Illya changed that mood of awe with three words. "Kill him Berserker."

It was but a whisper but no one doubted those three words were enough to warp reality, defy fate and pull the very heavens from the sky as Heracles pursued Naruto to enforce Illya's will. Their battle albeit one that was never witnessed by anyone other than those already in the Bounded field would be one that would become legendary.

VvV

To call it a roar did not do it justice. Beasts roared, Monsters roared, even Humans could roar in fits of rage. No what came out of Beserker's mouth when he found Naruto at the center of their make-shift battleground was a sound that could not even be thought of as a roar. It was a sound that rattled everyone present down to their very bones, a sound that was utterly beyond the comprehension of both man and beast.

Naturally Naruto's reply was to enter a runner's stance and bellow with a voice that shook the very earth beneath his feet. **"Dynamic!"**

Not even waiting for Naruto to finish whatever he was doing Berserker charged with a speed that a servant of his size and mental-fortitude had no right possessing but Naruto proved faster as in a series of shockwaves that cratered the ground he previously stood on he disappeared and seemingly re-materialized mid-air in front of Beserker with his foot stretched out in a flying kick.

" **Entry!"** Naruto finished the name of his attack.

Their was a thunderous crack as Berserker with a reactionary speed that surprised even Naruto brought his stone sword/axe weapon in between Naruto's foot and himself to use as Shield and fend off the flying blond. The tactic proved successful when the sheer impact between Naruto's foot colliding with Berserker's weapon created a shockwave of energy powerful enough to uproot nearby tree's and hurl them away as it swept through the area and nearly sent every spectator of this titanic battle flying.

In the aftermath, it was instantly clear that the sheer speed and power of Naruto's kick was great enough to drive even Heracles back due to the two 30 meter furrows in which the Greek demigod had dug his feet in to block Naruto's attack. But just because Naruto had momentarily overpowered Greece's greatest hero did not mean that Berserker was in anyway outmatched, as the son of Zeus proved not even a pico-second after by swatting Naruto out of the very air before he even had a chance to land again.

The only reason Naruto wasn't instantly split in two from the sheer strength and speed with which Heracles swung his sword/axe was simply the fact that Naruto instinctively drew on a technique he had created together with his wife Hinata when he still walked the Earth. " **Rasen Tate/Spiraling Shield.** "

The spiraling shield for all intents and purposes was a full-body Rasengan. He and Hinata had accidentally created it when she had been teaching him about the Hyuga Main branch technique **Kaiten/Heavenly Rotation**. By releasing chakra from every part of the body instantly and then physically rotating your body in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction you gave momentum to the chakra and it formed a defensive shell that protect the Hyuga in question from any incoming attacks. The faster you could do it the stronger the chakra dome created.

Naruto however kept getting dizzy due to not having the **Byakugan/Pale Eye** and its 360 degree field of vision (A crucial requirement for mastery of the technique) when he tried to recreate the Heavenly Rotation technique. Which was why instead of bothering to learn to spin very quickly to form the shell, he simply he borrowed the principles behind the Rasengan and incorporated them into the technique to solve the problem. By moving the chakra itself at rapid speeds around him, he could form the outer shell without getting dizzy cause he didn't have omni-directional vision.

It was this very Spiraling Shield that protected him from Beserker long enough that instead being bisected by the angry demigod giant Naruto found himself merely smacked away like an over-sized tennis ball. Even so his Spiraling Shield exploded like a fragmentation grenade due to the sheer power behind Heracles' counter as he went flying backwards.

Not bothered by this Naruto let the shell fade and formed a **Wind Release: Rasengan** in each hand that he immediately threw at Berserker while he reorient himself to bleed of some speed via air resistance and friction generated by landing on his feet as he skid to a halt after taking such a mighty blow.

Berserker however wasn't even fazed by the two chakra shuriken which converged on his position like guided missiles as he charged straight ahead towards Naruto. Letting the flying rasengan's explode against himself, the attacks did little more damage than cause a few cuts and scratches and ruffle his wild black locks before Berserker stopped right in front of Naruto and then brought his Sword/Axe down on the blond Shinobi with a mighty roar.

 **Boooooom!**

VvV

A dust cloud explosively blossomed around the two servants as the ground shook underneath them in a minor seismic event due to Naruto being seemingly split in half much to Shirou, Rin and Saber's horror. Illya on the other hand mere smirked and said. "Well at least he was a pretty capable Servant to have lasted as long as he did against Heracles Onii-chan but a Caster stood no chance whatsoever against my Servant. Which means you are next as promised."

Shirou gulped audibly as he remembered the deal Naruto made before he went off to fight that monster and because of the Oath Saber had sworn on her honor as a Knight she couldn't even interfere to help him. Shirou did not know what he was expecting to come out of it all but he certainly hadn't expected Naruto to straight up lose. He seemed so confident he would win after he asked Shirou to trust him.

Of course Saber chose that moment to speak up and said. "I wouldn't count Shirou's servant out of the fight just yet."

"Their is no way he could have survived that attack just now." Rin objected as she tried and failed to pierce the small mushroom cloud of dust that had arisen around the two combatants to look for any sign that Naruto was still alive. Illya nodded heartily in agreement with this.

But Saber simply dispelled such a notion by pointing out two things that everyone had missed. "If that's the case then why is the Bounded Field Naruto set up before the fight still up and shouldn't Illyasviel's servant have returned to her side by now seeing as despite his madness she has exercised a remarkable amount of control over him."

As if in response to her very words the cloud of dust that had obscured the two servants up until that moment dramatically cleared and left everyone bearing witness to the sight gasping in awe. Though admittedly it was Rin's response that best described exactly how jawdropping the scene was. "No fucking way!"

VvV

"Language!" Naruto admonished Rin even as he began to sweat bullets just trying to keep Berserker's blade that he had caught between his palms from splitting him apart. The maneuver that the First Hokage was so well known for that he could even correctly perform it with golem was only possible against this particular servant due to his stone weapon **not** being a true blade and the fact that Naruto had entered **Sage mode** the instant before Berserker tried to bisect him.

Any other warrior would have instantly tried to strike Naruto again from a different angle after he caught their blade barehanded. Of course Berserker being bound in the thrall of madness as he was did not go for this tactic, instead using his quasi-divine strength he simply pressed down on Naruto who despite the strength buff that Sage mode offered found himself slowly being pressed into the devastated ground beneath his feet as if he was in some kind of bog. And the scariest part about it all to Naruto was how quiet and focused Heracles was the whole time he did this.

Realizing he was not going to win in a contest of strength, not when he was merely a servant and summoned under the Archer class for that matter Naruto switched tactics. "You truly are an amazing guy you know. You hit like a pissed off Raikage augmented with Tsunade levels of strength and even in Sage mode you're overpowering me like i'm a rookie genin. It seems fighting you with this halfhearted approach will only get me killed. But you know what Beserker, you are not the only amazing guy here."

With that Naruto let go of Berserker's sword/axe for an instant putting the giant off balance momentarily. It was a technique that he had learned from the Fourth Raikage in the past, something that Ay had used to beat Tsunade in an arm-wrestling contest once. Why the Fourth Raikage and Fifth Hokage were arm-wrestling neither was willing to elaborate on but that wasn't important right now.

He couldn't overpower Berserker with pure strength alone, the dude was fucking Heracles. Insane strength was what he was best known for in his legend but when it came to speed, that was a another matter altogether. And when something moved fast enough it didn't have to be super strong to overpower anything in its way.

Which was why after letting go of Berserker's weapon Naruto merely drew back his left hand and then slapped that flat side of the blade at what if a scientist had been capable of calculating would have been considered close to 20% of the speed of light just as the tip of the blade came to rest above his nose. To say that all witnesses were shocked when Berserker nearly lost his grip on his sword/axe as it was violently blown aside was an understatement.

Of course the demigod even in madness was too skilled to lose his weapon due to an expected parry and immediately retaliated with two swings that would have carved Naruto from right shoulder to hip and then decapitated him for good measure. It would have been difficult to avoid these attacks unarmed had he been in his base form but in Sage it was a completely different matter. Everything about him was heightened including his ability to perceive and react to attacks to the point it bordered on precognition.

Naruto merely side stepped the first swing fast enough to create a shockwave and then distorted the air around him as he ducked under the second blow. A perfectly executed butterfly kick enabled him to twist over a sword slash meant to split him apart at the waist but instead banished his afterimage to which Naruto retaliated by forming a Rasengan in his right hand. Stepping into Berserker's guard before he could even react Naruto drove the sphere of violently spiraling Prana into Berserk at a good percentage of the speed of light sending the demigod flying backwards uncontrollably.

Over 3 quarters of the shinobi and kunoichi back in his day would have instantly been killed by such a combination of his fathers technique and his speed, and yet it didn't even scratch the giant. Due to how long ago it had been since he had walked the Earth even a fully formed Rasengan that had once been a feared and well known A rank technique had been forgotten and lost a bit of its power.

With its most basic form reduced to a solid B rank technique now, even if its explosive power had been exponentially increased by him driving it into Berserker at a decent percentage of the speed of the light, the technique was utterly ineffective against **that** man. Heracles was utterly unaffected by the technique for some reason despite the fact that the two **Wind Release: Rasengan's** he had thrown earlier which were far weaker technique's in terms of explosive power due to Naruto adding his speed to the regular **rasengan** had actually left a few cuts and scratches on the demigod. Something fishy was definitely going on here.

Quickly concluding that it was some kind of Noble Phantasm bullshit Naruto took note that it would have been better to hit the bastard with a Rasenshuriken. All these observations flew through Naruto's head in the amount of time it would a take a normal person to blink.

Even having momentarily driven Berserker off of him Naruto did not immediately follow his opponent and press the attack. Instead he came up with a plan of attack, for once. Naruto had always been a decent tactician in small scale skirmishes but the 4th Shinobi World War, service in ANBU black ops and becoming the 7th Hokage had really helped his tactical abilities thrive in both quality and sheer scale.

"Gaaah!" Naruto exhaled explosively as he let his shoulders sag. "This is no good, I can't keep holding back any more or the next blow you swing my way will be fatal and that would be bad for Shirou and me. Honestly I would have preferred not to kill you here and now Heracles but you are far too powerful for me to not come at you with intent to kill. So I guess as a thank you for a chance at fighting a legend of your caliber even if you are trapped in the embrace of madness I will end this with a blow worthy of someone of your stature son of Zeus.

"I, Naruto of the Uzumaki clan will certainly kill you in three moves Heracles, so try and stop it if you can." Naruto declared for all to hear, like a King addressing his subjects. His words contained a certainty that was unshakable, as if they were already a foregone conclusion.

Even as he spoke the environment drastically began to change as if nature had suddenly decided to throw a tantrum. Clouds rapidly covered the sky, bolts of lightning flashed and the winds kicked up into a strong gale around them within seconds. As if in response to this Naruto flared his chakra to a degree that was quite frankly intimidating to all the mages present and would have killed Shirou in 2 seconds flat had he been drawing mana directly from his master.

Thankfully after thousands of years as a Sage absorbing nature energy from the environment was more of a passive skill at this point. He could even do it while moving although not to the sheer degree that he could draw on nature energy when he stood still. Which was why despite his Master being utterly unable to supply him with mana Naruto was not in any trouble whatsoever. After all he did have [ **EX** ] ranked **Independent Action**.

Satisfied he had gathered enough chakra to use the technique one of his Noble Phantasms had informed him was possible Naruto muttered said Noble Phantasms name to activate the technique. " **The Show Off, Number 1, Unpredictable Noisy Ninja!** "

Throughout his lifetime Naruto had used many different weapons but had only ever kept two on on his himself and even then used them sparingly. Not out of fear or anything but because he quite frankly hadn't needed them for most of the situations he got himself in. it was only in the worst case scenario that he would ever pull out a **Truth Seeking Ball.** So it was no surprise that only that weapon had ever developed into a Noble Phantasm in the traditional sense.

Instead the majority of Naruto's Noble Phantasm and he had accumulated a fair number had taken the form of tittles. Each and every one of them whether passive or active was a description of who he was throughout his life on Earth and they shaped the way he used his vast array of Shinobi skills learned throughout his long long life.

Of the many tittles that Naruto had accumulated in life this particular one was his pride and joy, even more so than the tittle of Hokage. It was one given to him by Kakashi and it marked the first time that his former sensei had truly believed in his potential as a Shinobi. In addition to that it also perfectly described exactly what kind of ninja he was all his life. One that constantly learned from every experience and used those experiences to do that which no one would ever expect. In short it embodied his creativity and unpredictability.

In essence ' **The Show Off,** **Number 1, Unpredictable Noisy Ninja!** ' was not an always active Noble Phantasm but rather a passive one that could be activated in order to ramp up its power and functions a level or two. Its passive effect was to take his entire lifetimes worth of tricks, skills and ingenuity and then synchronize them with any other active Noble Phantasm for the most devastating result.

Its active effect on the other hand could be said to be similar to the skill **Wisdom of the Haunted Ground** except rather than accelerating the pace at which he learned all B to (–) A rank skills it allowed him to create his own fighting skills that were similar to any original he had come across provided he added a unique twist to them.

"Hear I come Beserker!" Naruto challenged.

" **Rrrraaaaaaaaaarrggghhhh!** " Heracles boomed in response as he raised his axe-sword.

With that Naruto exploded into motion in what one could almost call a shockwave of light particles, except that description didn't quite fit. Naruto didn't physically move from his spot so much as another copy of him seemingly popped into existence in front of Berserker in a shockwave of light particles.

" **Raiton: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!/Lightning Release: Shadow Clone Technique!** " The new Naruto cried before Berserker instantly decapitated it only for a third copy to explode into existence behind the son of Zeus as the second was still dying and yelled. " **Raikiri/Lightning Cutter!** "

Heracles rounded on even this one with his axe-sword and brought his weapon down on its head splitting it apart but once more another copy appeared in fourth shockwave. This time however as Heracles tried to bisect him at the waist he froze like an old digital recording paused between two frames. The new clone who had up until that moment stood perfectly still muttered. "I told you I would definitely kill you in three moves Heracles. **Combination technique. Set.** "

Suddenly the copy shoved its lightning encased hand like a blade through Berserker's heart with such force it burst through the other side. But it wasn't done as it detonated and ensnared Berserker in a cage of pure lightning making even the legendary demigod's muscles spasm.

Still Heracles was not known as the ultimate symbol of man's perseverance without reason and with a flick of his hand he sent his Axe/Sword flying at the original Naruto who hadn't moved the whole time before he could even react. With only the widening of his eyes and a surprised "Gyak" to show his disbelief Naruto found himself impaled by Heracles' weapon blasted through two tree trunks and pinned to a third.

VvV

"No way. He blew a hole right through Berserker's heart but that monster is act like its just a flesh wound and even managed to cave in part Naruto chest in retaliation." Rin cried out in horrified/fascinated kind awe at the fight between the two servants. Horrified cause of what this could mean for Shirou, fascinated by all the magecraft from the age of the gods that Naruto was showing off so casually.

Illya however looked only mildly interested in this whole affair and utterly unsurprised by Heracles' ability to still react despite getting his heart getting skewered. She was also the only one to note the irony of the whole situation, in that a son of Zeus was fatally injured with Lightning and that the Servant that had skewered her Beserker in turn got skewered by Berserker. Just desserts she supposed.

Turning to her brother she said. "It seems you servant really overestimated himself when he declared he would kill my Berserker in three moves. That level of attack while deadly to most other Servant's is nothing for Berserker. No man ever endured worse than Berserker did in life and prevailed. That Noble Phantasm while powerful enough to pierce right through Beserker failed to truly trigger God-hand. In other words it might as well have been a bee sting to Berserker. A bee sting I can heal easily, your servant's condition on the other hand..."

Shirou however did not even look at Illya as she trailed but instead kept his gaze on his servant who had yet to recover from getting impaled by Berserker's axe/sword. Instead he Chose to merely reply. "I believe in Naruto."

VvV

 _'The fuck hit me?'_ Naruto wondered as he looked around with his vision fading in and out of focus before he looked down in surprise at his own chest. Berserker's axe/sword was sticking out of it and pinning him to a tree. The demigod had struck out at Naruto even as he performed his technique and skewered the blond jinchuuriki to a tree. It shouldn't have even been possible due to the effects of his other Noble Phantasm but Heracles was out to prove him wrong it seemed.

Despite coughing up an unhealthy amount of blood from getting impaled, Naruto was not overly worried about his situation, after all he had survived worse. He had only ever come close to dying three times in his life. Every one of those times had been due to something far more severe than impalement...in his opinion at least.

Madara pulling the Kyuubi out of him, his second fight with Sasuke at the Valley of the End and that brat Kawaki came to mind. They were the only times he had been left on deaths door long enough for it to be said that he truly almost died in those situations. Kurama hadn't been able to do jack to help him in any of those situations. The rest of the times no matter how severe the injury he was back on his feet and bouncing around before his opponent could even begin their next jutsu thanks to his regenerative abilities and this time was no different.

With a heave Naruto yanked the Axe/Sword out of his ruined chest which promptly began to heal itself even as he walked towards Berserker totally ignoring the mutterings of "no way" coming from the spectators on the side. With a smile Naruto praised the demigod saying. "That was surprising Heracles, I genuinely did not see that coming. However everything I have done was merely a prelude to what comes next. My attack after all is not yet finished."

"Ggrraaaaaah!" Roared as he took an aggressive step towards Naruto but then froze as he sensed something wrong. The ingrained instincts of Greece's greatest mythical hero were able to identify the danger he was in despite his madness and he attempt to escape. However it was already too late and the ground shattered beneath Heracles' feet before he could even jump away.

In a whisper too low for anyone but a servant to hear Naruto muttered. " **Nature's Retribution!** "

It was a purple bolt of pure lightning so big it appeared more like a beam of energy than anything else and so bright it hurt to look at even with closed eyelids. It also did not come from the sky but rather rose from the ground and shot upwards into the sky where it branched off like a massive tree. Like the original Shinju/God-tree to be exact. The lightning was so powerful it vaporized Heracles' divine flesh off his very bones within seconds and then continued to burn till his skeleton turned into glowing embers before dissipating as quickly as it had appeared in a shockwave of thunderous power.

It was technique based of the powers of the two strongest Lightning style users he knew, Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke. One could argue that the Raikage's had stronger technique's but that just meant they did not know a thing about those two. Just the chidori Kakashi had made was powerful enough to penetrate the Fourth Raikage's Lightning armor when used by Sasuke and Kakashi had long since by then moved on to a stronger version of the attack the Raikiri.

The Lightning cutter had literally gotten its name when Kakashi used it to split a Lightning bolt in half a feat which singlehandedly got the technique an S ranking. By the end of Fourth Shinobi World War Kakashi having had Obito's sage chakra had become incredibly powerful and the less said about Sasuke and lightning the better. He still shuddered every time he thought of Indra's arrow.

Nature's retribution was an attempt at replicating Sasuke's Kirin technique but rather than controlling and calling Lightning down from the sky it brought it up from the ground. The Raikiri was used as a way to deliver a special electrical charge that would draw grounded electricity towards the target. The Lightning Release: Shadow Clone was a means of restraining the target long enough for the ground electricity to accumulate and hit them from below in an inverted version of Kirin.

Why it looked like the Shinju however Naruto had no idea and merely chalked it up to his Noble Phantasm. Normally he would have had to manually activate each component part of the technique using shadow clones and it would have just formed branches shooting upwards.

"That's more like it." Naruto muttered in Satisfaction before turning to a gawking Illya and saying. "What? I meant it when I said I was going to end him with a blow worthy of someone his stature. As the son of Zeus I thought the most powerful Lightning combination I know fit that description. Now I believe you owe me answers."

Illya merely smirked and replied. "In recognition of your accomplishment I will tell you two things. Firstly, the reason I want my brother dead is because he corrupted my father and kept him away from me. Secondly you are going to have to kill Heracles at least eleven more times before he lets you walk out of here."

"Grrrrrrrrgggghhh!" The sound of a loud growl alerted Naruto to the fact that his opponent was not quite as dead as he thought.

 _'Impressive regenerative abilities, fearsome even. Does that mean I need vaporize him down to the molecular level to kill him._ ' Naruto considered as he watched the ashes and embers that were covering Heracles' bones recede and be replaced with new perfectly healthy bone before that was covered by organs, flesh and blood. _'No that's not quite right. He was undoubtedly killed by my attack just now. This isn't regeneration, its true revival.'_

"Fuck!" Naruto muttered as he came to a sudden chilling realization.

"Weren't you the one screaming something about language earlier Naruto." Rin scolded Naruto who found the time to looked abashed and scratch the back of his head.

"I'm an old man deal with it. Besides I just realized why Illya said that I have to kill Berserker 11 more times. This is going to be a long night." Naruto muttered to himself even as he ignored Illya giggling in the corner. Seems the little girl had a hell of a sadistic streak. Naruto didn't mind though, he'd faced worse odds and lived. Though it seem he would have to go a lot further than he already had to be beat Heracles. With a vicious smirk he declared. "I suppose it's not a bad thing to have a little violent fun every now and then though."

End Chapter...

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Please leave a review and tell me what you thought. That and enjoy watching Avenger's Infinity War now that its out. I am so making a Naruto/MCU fic in future.


	3. Not all is as it seems

So I am still alive and kicking folks and I just want to say welcome to chapter 3 of 'Archer of the Fifth'. That and I am so sorry for the delay in updating this chapter. Honestly, so many things went wrong over the last couple of months that you'd think someone/something was conspiring to keep me off the internet.

Anyway I also wanted to express how grateful I am for your patience and overwhelming support so far. Like seriously guys, 22,000 views, nearly a 1000 follows, 750 favs for two chapters. I mean wow! I am touched you guys, really you guys are so awesome.

Now the biggest problem I've had over the months I wasn't updating, health issues and a funeral aside, was my computer got all wonky and I lost the original streamlined plot the story was meant to follow. After I rewrote it and changed up a few things from the original plot, it just stopped flowing naturally and everything felt forced or stupid. I had rewrite a few drafts till something worked and that became the new plot. I've mostly figured out where I am taking the story and I haven't had to change that much of the events I originally planned for the Fifth Holy Grail War except for a few tweaks here and there. The major changes I have made affect the aftermath of the Holy Grail War, things like meeting Arcruied and Scathach for example or the Reaction of the Mages Association and the Church to the ending of the war.

As for Berserker vs Archer. Well, the whole fight was originally meant to be in this chapter but my instincts kept telling me to put the first part in chapter 2 to keep things interesting and I follow my instincts. That fight continues here and I am honestly very sorry if I got carried away in writing it. You can blame the horrible combination of watching Fate: Apocrypha, Boruto: Next Generations episode 65, God War 4 and listening DOOM 2016 ost Vega Core. Throw in some Redbull somewhere in there and things just spiraled. I still hope you like it, no matter how much of a Naruto fan you maybe.

Now to address to the two major points raised by everyone, thank you for the reviews by the way. First Nature's Retribution only being able to take one of Heracles' lives and secondly Naruto's power levels when compared canon. To answer the first point, yes I deliberately made it so the attack only took one life and the Raikiri before that didn't really do anything. The reason for this will be explained in the chapter below so I won't spoil it for you. It isn't Nasuverse canon or at least I don't think it is but it's something that just seemed like common sense to me. You guys make of it whatever you will.

As for Naruto not being up to his usual planet wide extinction level event power levels and by that I mean he could easily kick up enough dust to choke most lifeforms on the planet to death but not actually bust the planet (Yeah I am looking at you Spacebattlers). Well, the universe the story takes place in is an amalgamation of both the Nasuverse and the Narutoverse, with the Narutoverse stuff all occurring before mankind started recorded its own history. So Atlantis and ancient Babylon might've known about Naruto but they are no longer here. The rest of the world wouldn't have even heard of him and in the Nasuverse there is a price to be paid when your legend is forgotten by humanity.

Naruto is a fallen deity, that became a heroic spirit that the world has completely forgotten about. The end result is that yes, he is a hell of lot weaker than canon. Despite this his stats are still abnormally strong for Servant regardless of his irregular summoning, incompetent master and lack of a boost to his stats from not being summoned in his home land, yada yada yada. So yeah I nerfed him, though I hate that word. It sounds so permanent, hmm! Besides I don't want him to go around insta-killing everything that isn't classified as a Type, Archetype or True Magician. That aside, I don't remember even hinting at any point that Naruto would remain that way. Now enough of this lets get on to the story.

Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto and Kinoko Nasu own everything (Including the money). I just make this story look good ( ***Sigh*** For free).

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Chapter 3: When all isn't as it seems!

" _I remember what I was like back then. Always thinking about myself and those I considered my family but no one else. I had been a hero by then long enough to become jaded to the very idea of heroism and their isn't a single man, beast or god on Gaia that could condemn me for that. That's why I had no wish for the grail at that time and perhaps it was thanks to this little quirk so many of us found our salvation. No one knew that Angra Mainyu was waiting in that corrupted grail to destroy the world. In their greed and lust for power, no one would have seen the bastard coming. Lucky for everyone that I fucked up that war way beyond any form of recognition."_

— Naruto Uzumaki

 **oOo**

"What?...what is this?" Illyasviel von Einzbern wondered aloud as she watched Berserker and the servant her adopted brother had summoned stand perfectly still across from each other, their gazes locked in a silent stare off. An eerie silence had fallen upon the tension filled battleground as the two titans waited for the other to make the first move.

A single glance at the surrounding left a shiver running up and down Illya's spine, she knew things would only get worse as the battle continued. Much much worse. The sheer destruction wrought by the two titans was as immense as it was utterly unnatural. It looked like a natural disaster had swept through the area, however it was the fact that said destruction was cause by people, albeit people long since dead, that drove home how terrifying Servants could be.

Illya knew quite well what kind of destruction an existence as unreasonable as a Heroic Spirit could bring down on any environment. Berserker himself was a servant that could be called the pinnacle of what it meant to be a Heroic Spirit or alternatively an embodiment of Chaos depending on who you asked. She'd been living with him for months now and not only had she seen what he could do but often commanded her servant to do it.

Even the amount of destruction already cause was trivial compared to what he could do when he really got going. She'd seen this first hand when the Einzbern clan had pitted him against a hundred battle homunculi in a fight to the death back in their forests in Germany. It was a 'test' of his abilities or so they'd said. A slaughter would have been a better albeit it kinder way of describe that event.

The massacre of not only her fellow homunculi but the environment itself had driven home how far beyond humans and homunculi her servant was. That Berserker could be matched even for a short time by her brother's Servant was quite frankly scary and Illya just knew that the environment around them would not survive the conflict.

This Naruto of the Uzumaki clan as he had named himself was truly an incredible Servant for a Japanese hero that no one had ever heard about. There was no mistaking the fact that Naruto was definitely a Japanese name, though how he was summoned when the grail favored western Heroic Spirits was a mystery. Still, with those looks he must have had western ancestry and as a Japanese hero he was probably also getting a major boost in stats from being summoned in his homeland. It was the only reason she could think of for Berserker having not already turned him to pulp.

Even so, a small part of Illya couldn't help but wonder that if Shirou could summon a Heroic Spirit of this caliber, then. _'Perhaps this is the reason why Kiritsugu never came back for me. Perhaps he found someone he believed...'_

Shaking her insecurities and uncertain thoughts of her long dead father away, Illya simply admitted to herself that Naruto was a strong Servant and his magecraft was incredibly powerful. Her adoptive brother had done well to summon a Servant like him.

However, Naruto had made one mistake when he previously engaged and killed Berserker with his Noble Phantasm. It was something so obvious that anyone with even the slightest bit of common sense would have immediately taken note of. Something so intrinsic to Heracles' legend that she couldn't understand how Naruto and Shirou had possibly missed it.

Heracles was the son of Zeus, the King of the Greek gods and **most** importantly a god of the **Sky**. So it wasn't unreasonable for even an idiot to assume that perhaps Heracles had a bit more resistance to Lightning than most other demigods seeing as his father freely commanded the element.

It was for this reason and this reason only that Naruto's **Nature's retribution** had done so little damage to Berserker. While the horrifying finisher unleashed upon him by Naruto had indeed completely killed Berserker once. His natural resistance to lightning through being born the son of Zeus ensured it was only sufficient to kill him once rather than take several more lives.

Where four or five lives would have been lost only one life was consumed by **Nature's Retribution** as it tore through **Godhand**. Had Naruto used a different equally powerful technique against Heracles, he would have lost the full number of lives he was supposed to lose instantly and she might have even considered retreating. She had lucked out on that one.

That said, even a 'Caster' class servant like Naruto would have had to use a huge chunk of his prana reserves to pull of such a powerful attack. He probably wouldn't repeat it or anything on that scale so soon, with so little reward to show for it. And if he did, it would be his undoing. As such Illya only had two words for her servant.

"Berserker, Kill!"

VvV

Something wasn't right here Shirou determined as his Servant glared down the enemy Servant. Naruto was his only lifeline between salvation and death in the form of the two and half meter tall slab of gray muscles, bone, mismatched eyes and madness that his apparent adoptive sister called her Servant. Worse yet, said Heroic Spirit just so happened to be freaking Hercules, the greatest hero in ancient Greece and easily one of the most famous heroes in the world, if not the most famous. _Yes, even he had heard of Hercules._

Even now Shirou was still trying to process all the revelations of the night. His apparent death at Lancer's hands earlier that night, a second one sided fight with Lancer when he got home. Learning about the Grail War and Servants in general from Naruto, Learning more about that from Father Kotomine, along with the truth about the Great Fuyuki Fires. And now learning he had a sister that Kiritsugu never told him existed. Correction, a sister that Kiritsugu never told him existed that now wanted him dead. That had been made all to clear before the fight even began.

The night had taken its toll on Shirou with all its revelations and he could barely handle it all. Honestly the only reason Shirou wasn't currently freaking out was because he was in shock and thus somewhat numbed to all the revelations he was experiencing. Unfortunately he wouldn't have the benefit of shock to hide behind tomorrow. Shirou was not looking forward to that. _'Perhaps some quality time preparing a good meal in my kitchen will make things easier.'_

Still Naruto's straight back as he faced down the terrifying monstrosity that was Berserker was a shelter in the thunderstorm Shirou's life had so recently become. Just looking at his Servant, you wouldn't think Naruto could stand up to Berserker and put the demigod on the back foot. Yet mere minutes ago Naruto had done just that with relative ease.

Shirou had never even in his wildest dreams imagined that magecraft could be so terrifyingly powerful until Naruto had vaporized the very divine flesh off of Heracles and turned his bones to glowing embers. The very thought that a man of such overwhelming power was now his new teacher in magecraft. Well, it made Shirou shake in an unexpected mix of excitement and nervous anticipation. A certain part of Shirou couldn't help but wonder. _'Perhaps now I can begin to fulfill my promise to Kiritsugu and become a true hero of justice.'_

Of course all thoughts of becoming a hero of justice had to be pushed aside for now. In the first place such a future depended on weather Naruto could defeat Berserker or more realistically out last the giant Servant in their current fight. Shirou wasn't an idiot and Archer had already explained his disadvantage in this war to not only him but Saber and Rin as well.

Unlike Berserker who had the unfair advantage of reviving over and over again every time he died and a master who could actually give him prana to supplement his natural prana reserves. Shirou on the other hand could not assist Naruto in any way. No matter how impressive his servant's prana reserves were, something they just to be if he could so casually throw around spells as powerful as the ones he'd witnessed so far, they simply were not infinite. Sure he could draw extra man from the environment but even Shirou with all his inexperience doubted that doing something like that in the middle of battle was smart, let alone worthwhile.

Another way of putting it would be to say that Naruto was on a timer and he needed to completely kill Heracles or force Illya to retreat with her Servant before the servant of Madness simply out lasted Naruto. At which point it would be a pathetically easy matter for Berserker to finish them both off.

Even so, Naruto did not look in the least bit worried about this fight. In fact he looked absolutely giddy at the prospect of meeting the son of Zeus in battle. His grin was positively toothy and the gleam in his eyes was quite frankly more than a little disturbing in Shirou's opinion.

Shirou would not get to make any of his observations so far known to his Servant or anyone else for that matter. For at that exact moment, on some unseen signal Berserker and Archer sped forward, crossing the measly distance separating them to engage in a bout of hand to hand combat that would sear itself forever in the minds of those watching.

VvV

The world exploded into madness as Naruto sped forward and slammed his fist into Heracles' own with sufficient force to generate a shockwave that set the very grass around them aflame. As the buffeting winds from their collision dissipated the two got into a steady albeit vicious rhythm of exchanging blows for a few seconds to feel each other out. Of course, this did not last long before the two Heroic Spirits truly delved into the pure skill honed over the courses of their entire lives that they were both famed for.

Heracles was bigger, physically stronger (for now) and a master of all forms of Greco-Roman wrestling, pammachon and pankration. So good in that last style was he that he had defeated the Minotaur in the Labyrinth and the Namean Lion empty handed. So ferocious, powerful and skilled in the art of pankration was he, that Heracles was often lauded as the originator of this ancient martial art alongside Theseus, despite having himself learned it from Chiron.

It was for this singular reason that despite being gripped thoroughly in an all consuming madness induced rage, Heracles hadn't already been flattened by Naruto and his combination of Konoha Basic, Hard Fist, Gentle Step and Frog Kata. If anything Heracles was keeping up with the legendary shinobi that was Emiya Shirou's servant...albeit just barely.

Uzumaki Naruto was a literal whirlwind of kicks, punches, elbows, knees and acrobatics as he danced in, out and around Heracles' guard. When attacked, he dodged the majority of attacks, deflected some and blocking the rest as he enthusiastically counterattacked the son of Zeus while radiating a disturbing amount of glee.

Even now, Naruto ducked under a cross to the face and then spun around a follow up knee meant to cave in his face as he ducked before he roundhouse kicked Heracles' hands aside when the demigod attempted to grapple him. Naruto's movements came so swift that to the untrained eye they would have appeared to have occurred almost simultaneously when he countered.

In retaliation Naruto punched hard in the direction of the demigod's face while corkscrewing his fist in the same the motion. Some instinct buried deep under Heracles' insanity flared to life and made the madman duck despite the fact that he was physically beyond the attack's reach. It saved him from a nasty surprise.

Beyond reach or not, the space Berserker's head once occupied was suddenly filled with a lance of pressurized and super-heated air. Naruto's nameless bastardization of Maito Gai's **Daytime Tiger** , **Morning Peacock** and **Evening Elephant** techniques was nothing compared to the real deal which could affect entire kilometers of land, but it served its purpose here.

Heracles had been forced to duck and in that moment Naruto blurred forward, little more than a streak to even the eyes of a Servant. Time slowed to a crawl from his perspective as he drove his knee into the crouched form of Berserker just like the son of Zeus had tried to do to him earlier.

With barely any time to cross his arms, it wasn't a surprise that Berserker found himself knocked head over heels backwards even if he successfully blocked the attack. A meaty sound filling the air as his attack was blocked before Sir Isaac Newtons laws laid claim to Berserker and he rocketed away from his shinobi opponent.

Naruto however had no intention of sparing even a second to let the demigod recover. Immediately jumping into the air, the ninja raised his right foot as high as he could over his head while yelling out. **"Heavenly Foot of Pain!"** Then he dropped it...

The ground literally shook in a minor seismic event as he brought his foot down on Heracles' head just as the demigod rose to a kneeling position from his tumble. Naruto's foot connected, smacking the kneeling son of Zeus's in the back of the head so hard Heracles' face smashed into the ground with enough force that he physically bounced right back off of it.

Most people would be utterly disoriented by such an attack if not rendered unconscious or worse killed on impact. In the case of Heracles, guided by some supernatural instinct, he merely grabbed a hold of Naruto's offending leg even as his face bounced off the ground hard enough a crater exploded into being where he impact it.

Not wasting a second the demigod known for his strength, using grace that would put an Olympic gymnast to shame whipped the ninja around in the air like a flail while perform the perfect butterfly twist before slamming him into ground. Once...Twice...Thrice...and then two more times for extra measure.

Each impact deepened the already deep crater created by the two warriors' conflict. Worse yet, the amount of seismic activity they were generating was not something that could easily be covered up. Or at least that would have been the case if not for Naruto's unique barrier.

Dropping him on his back Heracles' moved in to straddle the dazed Naruto and rain Hades down on the youthful looking ninja's head. Unfortunately Berserker was unpleasantly surprised when Naruto recovered faster than expected and kicked him in the groin and then sat up headbutting the giant hard enough to send him sprawling backwards. A quick kick-up and Naruto was on his feet again but so was Heracles.

Sprinting forward Heracles swung a vicious right hook under which Naruto simply ducked and with a single motion circled around to Heracles' back before wrapping his arms around the demigod's waist hoisting him into the air. In a move that would stun all onlookers, particularly those born in the 21st century, Naruto executed a perfect German supplex, the impact of which kicked up quite a dust cloud. However before Naruto could capitalize on this a big meaty fist bitch smacked him right out of the crater they were fighting in, across fifty meters of open field and into a tree.

Momentarily disoriented Naruto got up just in time to get drop-kicked in the face through said tree by a fully recovered Heracles and crash through the tree behind it and finally coming to a stop upon impacting a third tree so hard it toppled over sideways, completely uprooted. More embarrassed than hurt by this Naruto sprung back to his feet as if nothing had happened but leveled a truly nasty glare at Berserker.

Heracles on the other hand immediately tried to close the distance to which Naruto responded by picking up the uprooted tree he'd just knocked over and swinging it by the trunk. Like an over-sized baseball bat, the impact of his impromptu weapon with the demigod utterly destroyed said weapon but also sent Berserker flying several hundred meters away in what would have been an amazing home-run had this been a baseball game and not a deathmatch.

Heracles was obviously completely unharmed by this but that didn't stop Naruto from wearing the smuggest smirk the world had ever seen as he tossed the ruined remnants of the tree aside and muttered to himself. "Nobody dropkicks me through a tree and gets away with it."

VvV

Saber watched in amazement as the two goliath's raged at each other and tore the environment around them apart. Had they not been within Naruto's barrier, she had no doubt the devastation would have spread significantly further than the single square kilometer Naruto had monopolized for their battleground. Instead it was all contained in this one massive area.

That Naruto Uzumaki could simultaneously fight off an enraged Heracles and maintain what had to be a prana taxing barrier without getting any extra prana from his master and on top of that be the one driving Heracles back, frightened Arturia on some level. She would never consciously acknowledge it, let alone admit such a feeling to even herself, as it had no place in the heart of a King. That didn't stop the feeling from being true.

However watching Naruto stand his ground against Berserker, watching him trade blow after blow that even she would have had a hard time taking. She'd be lying if she didn't confess that her respect for the man went up a couple of notches even if she still felt pretty pissed at him for manipulating her master and making her swear to not interfere in this dispute. Well there was that and the fact that she felt something additional towards him other than fear and respect.

Was it attraction, admiration, curiosity or excitement, Arturia herself wasn't sure, for none of these words seemed to correctly give voice to what she felt. And yet all of them seemed to embody an element of her feelings. It was probably nothing though.

Instead of her feeling Arturia decided to focus on the battle before her. From the knowledge that the grail provided, she knew of the various feats Heracles had achieved in life and had a decent idea of what he was capable of. To say he was a hero without peer was well beyond an understatement. Yet Naruto seemed utterly determined to prove that very statement wrong.

It was obvious to her that Naruto was as skilled in magic combat as he was in martial combat. The simple proof of this fact was that this was Naruto's third fight that night and he didn't even look like he was losing. He'd displayed magecraft on such levels that even with her limited tutelage under the legendary wizard Merlin, she could tell that it was rated high enough to called incredible. His unarmed combat skills were also above anything she had ever seen in person, to the point that it was more like watching a masterful artist at work than watching a conflict between two servants.

However, Arturia had also seen Naruto use both a strange form of teleportation and a black shape-shifting sphere capable of negating even a low ranked Noble Phantasm like Invisible Air. So regardless of how amazing his martial arts skills were and they were unquestionably amazing, Arturia could not accept the idea that their wasn't a better way to win this fight than engaging Heracles in hand to hand combat. Something else had to be going on here that she had yet to perceive.

VvV

The fight had devolved. It was now closer to a slug-fest in the purest and most primal sense of the word than anything else. The two heroes of legend bit by bit forsook defense as they continue to strike each other harder and harder. However it could also be said that this was a slug-fest taken to its highest form, as each blow was not lacking for skill and technique.

This would have been fine if not for the fact that the two Servants were both so powerful that merely throwing punches created sonic booms and their blows connecting with each other created thunderclaps. The ground beneath their feet began to shatter all around them from the strength of the two quasi-divine heroes. The shockwaves of every impact quickly kicked up gale force winds that were steadily getting stronger by the second and had forced the spectators move further back or get literally blown away. Yet neither opponent was willing to give an inch.

In all this chaos Naruto's mind was like the calm in the eye of storm, analyzing everything yet steadily growing more and more excited as he thought. _'This familiar feeling, its been far too long.'_

Pushing slightly more chakra into his pathways, directing it to go to his muscles and assist them in simultaneously increasing his strength and releasing it more explosively. To his skeleton to reinforce it against the overwhelming power of Hercules' own strength. To his eyes to track the movements of incoming attacks faster and spot openings. To his skin and flesh so it became more durable and could endure the demigod's wrath while regenerating any damage that was taken, faster and more efficiently. He was using reinforcement in its most ancient form, yet it was at the same time different.

All of this was done subconsciously while Naruto's mind dwelt on what he felt at that moment. He remembered this feeling, a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time. Then it came to him. _'This is the feeling you get when fighting someone who could possibly kill you. The feeling of being alive in the midst of a death battle.'_ A nostalgic smile graced his face as he thought. _'I haven't felt this way in millennia.'_

Naruto was more powerful than Heracles, he knew this on a fundamental level but to unlock that power would without a doubt kill his master and wipe Fuyuki city off the map if not all of Japan. Not that Naruto was entirely confident he could succeed in accessing something like Six Paths Sage mode so long as he was a Servant. No, the only way for his true powers to be awaken, was for him to first resurrect himself into a truly living body. Fortunately that wouldn't be too difficult for him.

Focusing back to the opponent in front of him. Even reduced to the form of a Servant and one that was a fallen deity at that, he could undoubtedly kill Heracles 11 more times. In fact Naruto should have already at the very least killed Berserker once more with only pure taijutsu by now. _'So why was the bastard fighting back so ferociously and_ _ **not**_ _dying.'_

It made no sense to Naruto even as he slapped one of Heracles' fists to the side with enough force for the shockwave to turn the rocks in the crater that had become their arena into finely ground sand. Heracles was sloppy by Naruto's standards, his hand to hand combat skills were effective and psychologically intimidating. However they lacked the beauty of refined technique and movements all taijutsu technique's of his time inherently had. It used to many unnecessary movements, left too many openings and looked far too inelegant for his tastes. And yet.

 _'Every punch and kick he throws has a grace to it that screams perfection even in its inelegance. It's like he is saying I am the greatest hero there is, look at me and you will see that none can compare.'_ Naruto visibly shivered as a pang of anger, bitterness and regret twisted in his heart. His thoughts darkening as recalled his past that the world itself had forgotten before coldly concluding. _'I take extreme issue with such statements, which is why I can't help but be drawn in.'_

It was a simple analysis of self and the way he'd been going about this fight for the last few minutes. He had forsaken the various styles of taijutsu he had mastered over his long lifetime, all to match Heracles in the demigod's own style and technique. Most would say it was a foolish action.

No...Naruto himself knew better than anyone how foolish it was and normally would have avoided this at all cost. Yet his spirit told him that this was important, if he didn't match Heracles and surpass everything about the demigod right here then he would lose something more precious than this fight. Something deep down in Naruto's very soul would break. So snarling at Beserker as the two Servant's simultaneously attacked each other, Naruto mentally screamed. _'I will not let you win.'_

In the loudest thunderclap yet heard, the two warriors fists collided. One meaty and massive, looking more like it was carved out of granite. The other more within the bounds of what could be called human and yet undoubtedly not human, for a human fist would have been outright vaporized had it connected with Heracles fists in such a manner. Even so, with the full force of both Heroic Spirits strength pressing down behind them neither blow gave way to the other.

Less than an instant later their bodies began to glow with a golden light as the two Heroic spirits remained in that exact pose as if held in place by giant invisible hands. The brilliant light had a divine feeling to it as it fully engulfed the two and flickered around them like flames. It was a result of their very divinity resonating with each other.

Heracles was the pinnacle of heroism, a template that all gods and mortals could look to for inspirations if they ever chose to walk the path of the hero. However he wasn't the first the template. Before there was a Heracles, before there was even a Gilgamesh, there had been Naruto and he was the first to be called 'the perfect hero'.

However that was the Naruto of old, the one from before he became a god and then a Heroic Spirit. Which was why both the current Naruto and Heracles were resonating. Heracles had sensed the original template with each blow that connected against Naruto and his very divinity attempted to replicated that template inside of him. Attempted to make him into that which was once considered perfect.

Naruto on the other hand had sensed what Heracles was doing and his divinity remembered what it used to be, what he was supposed to be and how far he'd fallen. It had also desperately tried to recreate that which was lost. Unfortunately, while Naruto's recreation of his past divinity was superior to Heracles imitation, it was a far-cry from what he used to be and ultimately a failure.

Just as suddenly as they had began glowing, they stopped and Naruto leaped backwards to give himself some space. All the while he had truly disturbing grin on his face. He had **not** lost and he would never let himself lose to an opponent born on Gaia in the last 7000 years. _'That would just be truly embarrassing.'_

VvV

"Are you okay with this Shirou."

It was the first time Rin had spoken in more than five minutes, as just like every other spectator here, she had found herself captivated by the fight in front of her. The battle had been just that unbelievable to watch and yet none of them could willfully turn their gazes away from it.

"Hmm?" He asked for clarification without turning from the battle.

Normally Rin would have gotten upset about this but even she couldn't fault Shirou for not looking at her as she talked. Instead she simply said. "Your Servant is quite powerful but he himself admitted that he wasn't getting any Prana from you and it must be taking up a humongous amount of prana just to keep up with Berserker, much less fight him at a superior level. The Einzbern master on the other hand is freely supplying her Servant with all the prana he needs on top of the simple fact that Beserker has 11 more lives. We also cannot harm her in anyway due to our promise to your Servant. So are you okay with the way he is currently fighting."

Shirou frowned not quite understanding what Rin meant. Sure he knew of the risk of Beserker outlasting Archer, he himself had concluded as much earlier. However what could he realistically do about it. It wasn't like Naruto was doing badly against his opponent and any attempt by Shirou to jump into that fight was the same as trying to commit suicide. Well, it would probably be a bit more painful for him but the end result would definitely be the same. "Is their something wrong with the way he is fighting? He isn't losing."

Rin was silent for a moment as she continued to observe the battle but eventually responded. "No he is not, but if he doesn't start fighting seriously like he was before, he will inevitably run out of prana and when that happens Beserker will kill him and then kill you."

"He's not fighting seriously." Shirou said incredulously. Sure Naruto had yet to kill Beserker again but the level of hand to hand combat the two were using was so high that it couldn't be used without being serious in some way.

"Both of their hand to hand combat skills are unquestionably amazing, Naruto's being a little bit more so, and such skill would almost immediately kill anyone else. However, Naruto's thaumaturgy is unquestionably far better suited to killing Beserker and winning this battle. What Rin is trying to point out is that Naruto is not trying to kill his opponent but instead, simply beat him, judging by the silly grin on his face." Saber chipped in, finally electing to join the conversation.

This time Shirou did look away from the fight to gaze on the beautiful face of the Servant Rin had summoned and asked "You believe this too Saber-san?" All he got in reply was a firm nod.

Rin then said. "While I can't order Saber to do anything after Naruto sealed away my access to my Command Seals. He did not however seal away your access to **your** Command Seals. So you could order him to win this fight as efficiently as possible and in so doing save both your lives." Whether Rin knew it or not those words would ring in Shirou's very soul and nearly get every one of them killed.

VvV

"I applaud you Heracles. For reminding me of the hero I used to be and for giving me something to strive for. However, I got so caught up in your magnificence that I was beginning to emulate your modern fighting style. From this point on that will no longer be the case. Still you reminded me of something important and for that you have my gratitude. You reminded me that I **am** the Hero and this...this is **my** story." Naruto confidently spoke.

" **ROOOAAAAAAAARRRR!"** A bestial roar tore from Beserker's throat as sped forward ready to engage in another bout of vicious close quarters combat but Naruto was having none of that anymore and clapped his hands together.

" **Water Release: Severing Wave!** " Naruto muttered the name of the famous and rather fearsome technique of the 2nd Hokage Senju Tobirama as his chest expanded to almost comical size and his cheeks bulged. A needle thin stream of pressurized water shot from his lips with such speed and force it seemed more like a beam of light. A beam of light that with a diagonal jerk of his head Naruto swung like a giant blade from the sky to the ground, severing the earth in twain.

Heracles did not even have enough time to begin dodging, let alone think of doing so, had he even been capable of such thoughts. The A rank technique caught the demigod across the chest, slicing across his divine skin in a shower of sparks that looked more the clashing and grind of two blades against each. The end result of which was that it caused merely a shallow cut that wouldn't even impede Heracles but a cut nonetheless. All in all, the technique merely stopped Berserker's charged cold. Still only Saber noted that Berserker wasn't the actual target of the technique.

The ground looked like it had been split in two by a giant blade wielded by the hands of a god-like being. A deep trench had been carved into the earth all the way till the barrier that was the border of the extra-dimensional arena. Slowly from the bedrock water sprung forth to fill the fissure even as Naruto blurred through hand-seals for another technique. One better suited to evening the odds between him and Beserker, specifically the only odds he cared about in this fight. A means to defeat Illyasviel von Einzbern.

Naruto smirked as he thought. _'With this I win!' before finishing the last seal and uttering._ " **Secret technique: Mist Rain!** "

It was the infamous Kiri technique that created chakra laced rain that drained an enemy ninja's chakra if it fell on them. Naruto had cast it only over the area he and Beserker were fighting in and so the only person it would affect was Beserker. And one way or the other the mad demigod would be forced to expend much more prana than was needed, faster than his master could supply.

Naruto hadn't missed the fact that his 'Wind Release: Rasengan's' had damaged Berserker and yet a normal 'Rasengan' even slamming into the demigod at hyper-sonic velocities had done absolutely nothing (See previous chapter fight for reference). Somehow Heracles was immune to all technique's below a certain rank and unfortunately for Naruto the **'Secret technique: Mist Rain'** was below what would be considered an A rank techinique in the modern era. As a result Heracles' immunity should have negated its effects, the key word there being ' **should** ' have.

Mist Rain was ancient technique and older things in this world were always stronger due to have more metaphysical weight to their existence. But even that wouldn't have been enough to overcome **Godhand** or all of Naruto's technique's would have worked against Berserker including normal Rasengan. No what set the Mist Rain technique apart was in fact its purpose. The ability to force the body to expend more chakra/prana than necessary rather than directly trying harm the body. An effect that was laced into every single rain drop the comprised the technique so that even if it was dispelled the next raindrop would simply reapply the technique.

The thing was that the even though it lacked the power to overcome Godhand's nullifying effect, it was perfect for keeping Godhand active against and forcing Illya to burn through her reserves so that Heracle's could keep his Noble Phantasm active. In other words, by continually activating to nullify each and every raindrop, Godhand expended prana and did exactly what the Secret Technique: Mist Rain was meant to accomplish regardless of the fact that it was being nullified.

All in all this tactic made Beserker draw on more power than Illya wanted to give and thus it was really an attack against Illyasviel von Einzbern. An attack that would force her to surrender or be drained dry by her own servant. The others could not do anything against Illya for largely because Naruto had personally stopped them from doing but he had made no such promises about himself.

As for Berserker, he was completely unharmed and could freely attack Naruto but then Naruto was also strong enough to easily defend against Berserker and the Mist Rain did not affect the caster of the jutsu. What was even worse was the fact that, just attacking him would force Beserker to use more prana than he already was and simply drain his master faster. By casting the jutsu over a very localized area, no one would even know about the effects that a single drop of rain forced on any living being it touch.

Illya would soon be wondering why she was being drained so fast by Berserker and Naruto would soon be the victor of this battle. Naruto on the other hand had the massive reserves to last this entire fight. His Prana reserves were ungodly huge to the point that it could be considered foul play and even more terrifying than their size was the fact that he recovered from chakra exhaustion incredibly fast. Or rather he did when he was alive but the ability to quickly recover still had its uses as Servant. All in all, he had won and it was just a matter of waiting for Illya to surrender.

 _ **By this command seal I, Shirou Emiya order you Naruto Uzumaki to defeat your opponent as efficiently as possible.**_

 _'What the hell does that idiot think he's doing?'_ Naruto growled in thought as he turned to glare at his master. He'd been both enjoying the fight and winning it, his strategy also all but ensured victory. The fact that it had also been such a long time since he'd been able to cut loose like this also did not endear his master to him at the moment. Okay, perhaps that was a bit of an exaggeration cause if he really cut loose demigod or not Heracles would not be standing in front of him.

Still, he'd been having fun tossing Berserker around like a ragdoll, so Naruto really did not appreciate his fun being interrupted. Especially with such a useless and wasteful order, when he was already on the path to victory. He was fully capable of just ignoring the Command Seal – one of the benefits of A++(+) **Independent Action** – but simply doing so would have been so wasteful.

Unfortunately obeying this particular command also put everyone present in danger. Sighing in exasperation Naruto cancelled the Mist Rain technique as he thought. _'It seems I am going to need to have a long talk with my new student about where, when and what to use his command seals for after this. Now then, how to do this.'_

VvV

Illya breathed a sigh of relief as the rapid drain of her Prana reserves suddenly cut off. She was getting extremely worried there for a second. Just moving Berserker used up an enormous amount of Prana and if not for the fact that she was homunculus specifically designed with enormous reserve to be able to control such a prana taxing servant, she wouldn't have even been able to move him let alone sustain him for months before the Holy Grail War even began. Hell until the Grail had kicked in and helped her support her Servant, anything Berserker did caused her incredible amounts of pain.

Thankfully when the war began it freed up a huge chunk of her enormous reserves and gave her access to what at the time she wholeheartedly believed was the strongest Servant in the war. Caster (Archer) however was making her rethink her opinion. And by the Root did Naruto have massive reserves of prana to draw from, for him to keep up with Berserker for so long. Her reserves were massive but very very very finite. Caster's reserves were apparently not so finite. How unreasonable.

Regardless she was grateful to whatever deity was watching over her that the drain on her reserves had subsided. Now she just needed to finish off Caster and for that Berserker needed his ax-sword. It took little more than a thought for the demigod to retrieve his long since abandoned weapon. At which point all Illya had to say to her servant was. "End him Berserk-, eh!"

She never got to finish that sentence...

VvV

The smoke bombs dropped like a well orchestrated carpet bombing, kicking up a bright red smoke from Naruto position all the way up to a few meters in front of Berserker. Within that smoke unseen by anyone six clones popped into existence around Naruto and of the six, four of them dashed off to engage Heracles.

They would last mere seconds now that Berserker had his giant stone ax-sword once more, but that was perfectly acceptable. Naruto only needed them to keep him busy for half the amount of time he anticipated it would take Heracles to eliminate them. Instead he merely stretched out his hand remained perfectly still.

Two swirling cyclones of leaves appeared on either side of him as his remaining two clones in turn disappeared. However their target was not Berserker but rather the spectators who'd been watching the fight between Naruto and Heracles unfold. Their only job was to keep everyone from dying, which was why Naruto had given them slightly more chakra than the clones engaging Berserker.

Speaking of which, Naruto's clones were doing an admirable job of dodging, ducking, bobbing and weaving over and under every swing from Berserker's weapon. However this would no longer be the continue. One of his shadow clones had arrived in front of Illya and Berserker was determined to go protect his master. Naruto couldn't have that.

One of the clones jumped into Berserker's way as the demigod tried to rush towards his master and got beheaded for its troubles. However the instant it died a pattern of seals crawled across Berserker's weapon and its weight multiplied a thousand fold.

In an instant Heracles was off balance as his ax-sword slammed into the ground as if under the influence of higher gravity. Before the son of Zeus could even react another clone materialized besides him and struck with a Magnet Release: Rasengan directly to the chest. Berserker didn't even stumble back from the attack, but then he couldn't even move as Shukaku's curse mark patterns scrawled their way across Berserker's lead colored skin. Even so Beserker strained his muscles against the seals holding him in place. Enough that the clone began to sweat just to keep him in check.

A third clone appeared on the other side of Heracles just as it finished a series of hand-seals. Its blond hair rapidly elongating, wrapped around around Berserker in a tight vice-like grip while expertly avoiding its fellow clone. **"Wild Lions Mane Technique!"**

Just then there was a rushing sound of water headed there way. A wave of water burst out from the bedrock where Naruto's **'Severing Wave'** had split the Earth apart earlier and flowed around Berserker before enveloping him and then solidifying around him. The fourth and final clone appeared with his hand already inside the giant ball of water and muttered. **"Water Release: Water Prison Technique!"**

Berserker was completely immobilized but a combination of Berserker's strength and Godhand were already working to make a way for Heracles to escape the three binding technique's. They would not hold him long but they did not have to.

Chains of golden energy sprung up from the backs of the the two clones that had appeared in front of the spectators and created barriers around them that were so powerful a Tailed Beast could not escape them. It was the only way the human Master's would have had a chance of surviving what came next.

" **Imari/Menacing Ball!"** Naruto whispered as the blue and red pure chakra he drawn from the battleground finished collecting into a basketball sized purple sphere and then shrinking to the size of a tennis ball. A pulse chakra sent it rocketing straight towards Heracles and the three grinning clones that had bound him at supersonic speeds and with that the world turned white.

VvV

 **BOOOOOOOOMMM!**

The thunderous sound echoed around Fuyuki city waking up its citizens and sending its emergency services into overdrive. Unfortunately the lack of any destruction to accompany the glass shattering cacophony meant that, said emergency services could not pinpoint the origin of the noise, for all the racket it created. It would later be written off as one of those gas pipe explosion that were so common nowadays. A very good thing for a certain trio of Servants and their respective Masters.

The only reason anyone outside of the barrier had even heard the explosion was because the barrier had unraveled at the exact moment the Menacing Ball detonated. Luckily the vast majority of the explosion was contained due to the barrier itself being out of phase with reality. Gaea was thankfully not particularly interested in making an event that occurred in a pocket reality reflect itself in the real world. As a result their was literally no damage done Fuyuki city due to the fight between the two titans. Well, that is to say outside of all the shattered windows and busted eardrums thanks to the sound of the explosion. Still no real harm done.

Even so neither Archer nor Beserker were in any condition to fight. Red prana rich steam was converging at the point where Heracles once stood as the demigod slowly reformed himself from nothing. And to the utter disbelief and terror of one Illyasviel von Einzbern, Beserker had lost 7 lives in one go, meaning that he only had 4 left.

On the other hand Naruto was almost out of prana, to the point that his form was becoming transparent and his outline glowing a slight orange as he was barely able to cling to this world. He had used way too much power and it was biting him in the ass. Thankfully Naruto was a very forward thinking and lucky individual who had specifically prepared for such an eventuality.

Too exhausted to even stand straight Naruto staggered backward and began to fall over onto his back. However before his back could even tilt past a 70 degree angle he was stopped by the firm had of one of his clones that had suddenly body flickered into existence behind him. It was the same clone that had transformed into a literal fly on the wall to eavesdrop on Shirou, Rin and Kotomine Kirei as they met in the Church.

Its purpose had been to protect his and Saber's master's in case anything had happened to them in there but with that duty completed Naruto had charged it with gathering massive amounts of nature energy for just this sort of situation. Smirking at him the clone said. "You did good boss. Oh and the other mission is a go." With that it promptly dispelled itself and Naruto felt his reserves fully replenish themselves.

"Sweet kami! I was running a little low there for a few seconds." He chuckled to himself even as he turned to his worried master. Berserker would take a few minutes before he recovered from his latest round of disintegration at Naruto's hands so the ninja felt confident he could ignore him and said. "Yo! Master are you alright. You look like you swallowed something particularly sour."

Shirou looked absolutely bewildered and sounded much the same as he replied. "Am I alright! Are you alright Naruto? You practically took the backlash of that explosion to the face while simultaneously defending all of us and maintaining the barrier around us."

"Oh that! That was just a Menacing Ball, a scaled down version of a Tailed Beast ball. The real thing can wipe out mountains with ease and I have taken even stronger attacks to the face with no damage. That said." In an instant Naruto blurred forward and appeared in front of Shirou before he could even realize what happening, then gave the rust haired boy a hard flick on the forehead. The result of the action sent Shirou sprawling backwards, head over heels from the sheer force. Leveling his student with a glare Naruto yelled. "Don't ever try and interfere in one of my fights again via Command Spell without my express permission unless you are either in immediate and very real danger of dying or desperately need to call me to your side in an emergency."

"But you clearly showed that if you were serious, you could have beaten Berserker right away. If you continued like the way you were fighting I was afraid you'd die." Shirou explained a little fearful of his master, especially with the way Naruto was glaring at him.

Sighing as he pinched the bridge of his nose Naruto responded. "At what point did I ever suggest beating Berserker was my goal. My only interest was in making sure that your sister didn't kill you and that you were safe. If I had added any more power to that attack due to being forced by that reckless command spell, everyone would have died right there. I asked you to trust me in this fight and expected you to do so no matter how bad things might look or get. You are lucky that at that exact moment you gave me that command, a weak Menacing Ball **was** the most powerful attack in my arsenal I could use or no one here would be alive right now."

"I didn't know."

Naruto scoffed at the excuse even if he could tell that Shirou was genuinely horrified that he'd almost got everyone killed, instead saying. "Of course you didn't. We haven't been a Master and Servant pair long enough for you to get a handle on my abilities. But that's not important right now, what's important is whether you have learned your lesson after making this mistake." Naruto's appearance suddenly took a very menacing look as he flared his killing intent and added. "Or do I need to brand it into your very soul my young disciple."

Paralyzing fear seemed to clamp down on Shirou's heart as his sensei looked at him with a possitively evil grin. A part of him wondered what the hell he'd gotten himself into when he asked Naruto to be his master while the rest somehow managed to respond. "N-no! I've learned my lesson. I...I am very very sorry for this sensei!"

"Good! Apology accepted. Honestly I find the fact that you were worried about me quite endearing kid but have faith in me next time, no matter how silly my actions might seem to you and I will place my faith in you. As for your sister, I believe she owes me a couple answers." Naruto said and in a swirl of leaves body flickered over to the near catatonic young girl.

VvV

 _'What the hell? What the actual hell? Seven! That smug bastard took seven of Berserker's lives as if it was nothing and he's already back to fighting form while Heracles has only finished regenerating 75 % of his body after being reduced to atoms. Are you fucking kidding me!'_ Illya was nearly hysterical as she went on mental rant about how bullshit Naruto's abilities were. _'What kind of monstrous servant did Shirou-nii summon.'_

Much like the other spectators of that particular fight, Naruto's monstrous combat and magical abilities had shaken her to the core. What was even worse was the fact that her adopted brother had managed to summon a Servant of that caliber and supply him with enough Prana that he could fire of such mindbogglingly powerful spells one after another. It utterly terrified her.

So caught up in this line of thought was she that Illya was completely startled when Naruto appeared before her in a swirl of leaves. From that day forward, Illyasviel von Einzbern would swear up and down to anyone who asked that she did not squeak in surprise.

"Easy there Illyasviel. I am not here to harm you, I just want those answers I was promised when we made that little bet. That is of course assuming you concede my victory in this battle against Berserker." Naruto said confidently before adding with a tone that promised pain and misery for Heracles. "If not then I could simply just finish him off but I assume you still need him."

Sighing in resignation Illya reluctantly replied. "I'll concede that you are the victor here and answer your question." Before pausing in thought and adding. "Oh and just call me Illya, you make my full name sound like its a chore."

"Sorry about that." Naruto apologized with a sheepish look on his face before he became serious and asked. "So, why do you want my Master dead. Don't worry, none of the others can here this conversation."

Illya was silent for a moment as she looked into his eyes searchingly. It took a minute but once she was satisfied with what she found, she finally replied. "He took my father away from me."

"Huh?" This was obviously not a reply Naruto was expecting and it quite clearly caught him off guard. He knew something bad must have happened for her to want to kill Shirou so badly but he didn't think it had to do with their late father.

Preempting his demand for an explanation Illya simply said. "10 years ago my father and mother left the Einzbern Castle in Germany to participate in the Fourth Holy Grail War. My mother was the lesser grail in that war and my father was an outsider who had married into the clan for the sole sake of participating in that war and winning it on behalf of the Einzbern clan. His methods and understanding of the moonlit world gave him an edge against all other masters participating in that war and beyond even that Kiritsugu Emiya was said to have wielded the servant that could have been deemed as the **strongest** Saber within the bounds of that particular class of Servant."

Naruto snorted in amusement and said. "I know for a fact that if you had used a little common sense and summoned Heracles under the Saber class he would have taken Issue with that and simply proved you wrong. Or better yet, you could have summoned him in class he's best suited for, as an Archer class Servant and more than likely won the war. Seriously did you not read up on his legend before deciding to summon him cause you would have plainly been able to see that just about every other class save Caster worked better for him than Berserker."

Ignoring his rant about the merits of summoning Heracles under a different class something she both agreed with and had thought of considerably before she had summoned him. Illya simply explained. "I was forced to summon him as a Beserker by the Head of the Einzbern family."

Naruto's prompt reply was. "Well he's an idiot! Anyway you were talking about your father?"

Nodding in agreement with Atch being an idiot for forcing her to summon Heracles as a Berserker she finally got back on topic and said. "My father carried the hopes and dreams of the entire Einzbern clan. He was going to win the war and retrieve the 3rd True Magic for the clan. He should have won the war."

"But." Naruto helpfully supplied when Illya remained silent trying to choose her words next words carefully.

"Mother died and father at the last minute decided to betray the clan and instead destroy the Grail." Illya remembered the day she had received the news about the fate of her mother and the actions of Kiritsugu. She had been a child and it had taken time to fully comprehend everything that had happened. The Einzbern's painting the picture that her father was a pathetic traitor also hadn't helped at all. Yet some how she had resisted their indoctrination and formed her own conclusion. "The Einzbern Head and the other clan members have given me various reasons for why Kiritsugu did this but I don't trust them. My sole purpose for fighting in this war is so I can find out for myself what really happened."

Naruto nodded in understanding but replied. "Still, that doesn't explain why you're so ready to kill your own brother."

"With age comes broader insight into how the world works and the fact that I am a human/homuculus hybrid means that I have a very good memory. I have a perfect memory of all the events from back then but with none of the emotional stress and pressure from my family that I went through at the time. From that certain things can be deduced. Destroying the Holy Grail was one thing and in his grief over mother's death I can understand why Kiritsugu would do something like that. Its just proof of how much he loved her. What I can't ignore or forgive is him never coming back home to get me after he promised he would return. It's also not a secret that in that time he was away, he adopted Emiya Shirou and raised him as his own." She explained.

"..." Shirou remained silent as he let the girl speak to him truthfully about her reasoning and grievances with her brother. He'd always been good at getting people to be honest with and moving them with his words and actions. Time and his status as Heroic Spirit had not changed this in anyway.

"My father was many things to many different people but when it came to me one thing he was not, was a liar. He would never lie to me or forget a promise he made to me which means that that bastard you've been calling my brother is the reason he never came back home. Emiya Shirou is the reason I never got to see Papa's face again before he died far away from home and I cannot forgive Shirou-nii for that."

"I see." Naruto simply replied sympathetically before sighing deeply and saying. "I've lived a long life, perhaps too long. In the past I would have automatically told you that revenge is not the answer but that would be pretty hypocritical coming from the current me. So what I will say for the moment is go home for now and recover. Heracles can't be an easy servant to supply with prana, especially when I was busy kicking his ass, I am pretty strong you know." Naruto grinned pretty smugly as he talked about kicking Berserker's ass.

"..." Illya said nothing but by the rapid eye twitching and strangling motions she was making with her hands it was obvious she was less than pleased with his bragging.

Getting serious Naruto continued. "More importantly that that however is the fact that now that we are no longer in my barrier it would be better if you headed home and laid low for a while. 4 lives is still enough to take on any other Servant in this war even if just barely but I don't doubt that if you remain exposed someone will attack you now that I have weakened Berserker. And if we meet again, I promise on my honor as a Leaf Ninja that I, Naruto of the Uzumaki clan will do what I can to help you dig up the truth about what happened to your father regardless of whether you are an enemy master in this war or not. Deal."

Illya scrutinized the blond ninja again as she weighed his words. He was so honest that she couldn't help but be drawn in by his words and so eventually replied. "Deal."

VvV

The walk home after Beserker and Illya had retreated was a rather quiet affair. The two Masters and Saber were still in no small amount of awe at the sheer power Naruto could bring to bare when he considered getting serious in a fight.

The very thought that the whole time Naruto had been fighting, he had not been taking things seriously at all, shook them up. Well that wasn't strictly speaking true. Naruto had fought seriously within the limits of the power he was **willing** to deploy without causing needless casualties. However he was far more powerful than that and as a result unwilling to use his full power for fear of killing his master, allies and any innocents nearby including the enemy Master. Something that was now very clear to everyone present.

That said, he was perfectly capable of killing Beserker when ever he wanted. Whether he did this using his strange thaumaturgy over and over again or with his equally strange Noble Phantasms mattered little. The fact remained that he could accomplish this while not even being – according to him – capable of drawing on 10% of the power he commanded in life.

It was that kind of revelation that simply shook up your very sense of worth. Before when Naruto had mentioned his various tittles and accolades they had meant very little to Rin, Shirou and Saber. Even now they had no idea of the true meaning behind those tittle. However, whether they were important or not was no longer even in question.

Whatever tittles you gave a man who could fist fight Heracles and walk away from that unscathed had to be worth some kind of significance. No one even wanted to address the simple fact that Naruto had effectively wiped out seven of Berserker lives in one shot, with what was the magical equivalent of a miniature tactical nuke minus the radiation. Lucky them Naruto's clones protected them in small barriers while the big barrier contained the damage and kept it out of phase with reality. After that as far as Rin was concerned magecraft from the Age of the Gods was just utter and complete bullshit.

That said, Naruto despite his battered state and second (third, in his mind he was winning against Saber ) victory that night was anything but happy with the silence and decided something needed to be done about it. Turning to Rin the whimsical blonde said. "Isn't it about time for you to propose that alliance with me and Shirou that you've been thinking so hard about for a while now. I mean if you ask real nice, I will definitely say yes."

Caught off guard at being confronted so directly Rin asked. "What makes you think I would want to do something like that?"

It wasn't that she wasn't interested. After what she'd seen, Rin would have happily named her firstborn child after Naruto if not outright sold the child into slavery to get the kind of knowledge and power the ninja possessed. Rin was a proper magus after all. No, what bothered her was the condescending way that Naruto put. As if he was fully aware that she lusted after his power and knowledge. As if he knew that their was no way she could possibly say no to such an offer short of it costing something super immoral like the genocide of half of Fuyuki city's population.

"Well, for starters my awesome display of thaumaturgy left you blatantly gawking in awe of my magnificence. That's not a surprise considering how pitiful the mana of this era feels. I can only guess that magecraft has equally weakened. Which means you will most certainly want access to my skills." Naruto pointed out and Rin found herself unable to refute the claim.

"Secondly, for some reason you care enough about Shirou that you don't want to harm him or see him harmed, thus better you be the one protecting him from other masters than someone else, right." Again their was a teasing lilt to Naruto's voice that implied...well she didn't like what it implied and Rin found herself contemplating methods to painfully torture the man, powerful Heroic Spirit be damned.

"Thirdly, before this fight you believed that with the King of Knights as your Saber-class servant, your victory was inevitable. Now, you are not so sure about that, so if you didn't have to worry about me until the very end of the war and could in fact count on my help all the better, right?" Naruto listed a bit more seriously this time but with a self-satisfied smirk on his face as Rin seemed to go from atomic red to incredibly pale and back in no time at all. "I'd bet good money that you are probably thinking something along those lines."

"C-can you read minds?" Rin stuttered in sudden fear. No doubt due to all the greedy thoughts she had been having off him the whole time they had been together, especially after seeing all the forms of magecraft he had performed during his battle against Berserker.

However her assumptions were incorrect, Naruto could sense emotion primarily negative ones and when combined with his training from ANBU black ops it made reading her quite easy. He didn't mind though, in life he had never been a Jounin which meant he had never had the opportunity to lead a team. His only promotion from the rank of genin had been to ANBU before he became a Kage. That said no one dared question the fact that their was no Jounin past or present that could equal him in ability.

"No, but I am the next best thing. I am an Empath, I can read emotions, primarily negative ones and I am skilled at reading body language, micro-expressions and tonal inflections amongst other things. I did know a couple of Telepath's though, hell their was a whole clan of them in my home village." Naruto admitted only bewildering Rin and Shirou more.

"What kind of village did you come from anyway." Shirou asked curious about his servant.

"Well to put it in modern terms, it was a village of about 25,000 or so Warrior-Mages that were known as Shinobi and before you ask no, we were only very loosely related to the Shinobi and Kunoichi of Japan. To be precise, its from my culture that the very concept of Shinobi originated from but my culture died out a very very long time ago. The tittle of Shinobi carried with it, a very different annotations but we can get into that when I begin your lessons." Naruto explained before turning to Rin and saying. "As for you, would you like to be one of my students Rin."

"W-what?!" she exclaimed at the rather casual offer.

"While it might have seemed like I was joking earlier, I was actually serious about an alliance. I also know that you are a far more capable magus than Shirou and due to my empathy I know just how much you want learn the secrets of my thaumaturgy." Naruto explained as he watched Rin blush heavily at the fact that he knew all along about how greedy she was for thaumaturgical knowledge. "I'm offering. Will you accept."

Trying to steer the conversation into a lane that made sense to her cause no magus in their right mind would ever just offer to teach the secrets of their magecraft without some ulterior motive. "So what you are saying is that if I ally with you and Shirou, you will teach me some of what you know alongside Shirou."

Naruto merely grinned at her and said. "From the minute I met you, I understood that you were proud of your skills at magecraft and quite intelligent. The very notion of wasting such talent is offensive to me. I fully intended to teach you alongside Shirou from the very beginning and part of the reason I fought Berserker the way I did was to open your eyes to just how much more there is to thaumaturgy than you already know."

Rin widened her eyes in shock at hearing that asked. "This was all an elaborate set up to reel me in?"

Nodding Naruto answered. "Yes! I believe I already said in front of both of you that I would use this war as my classroom if necessary, albeit I was mostly talking to Shirou. The reason for my actions is the fact that thaumaturgy from back then was different from what you know now. As result how much I can truly teach you is difficult to say and thus I may need help bridging the gap between the two styles. Specifically I need you to help me understand your modern way of thinking and approach to magecraft. Once I understand this I can better teach you both my way and help you overcome the subtle differences between the two systems. Of course I could definitely figure out something on my own even if you decline my offer but with you alongside Shirou, things will be more efficient. So do we have a deal."

"Yes." Rin replied calmly even though he could feel her bursting with joy inside.

Nodding in satisfaction Naruto said. "Great. As I told Shirou, refer to me as Naruto or Sensei or Naruto-sensei if you prefer."

Nodding in agreement Rin analytical mind drove her to ask. "What do you think you will be able to teach us."

"I've seen you gathering magical energy from the environment, taking into yourself and then using it in your spells. My people called this Senjutsu and it was a skill that was considered to be incredibly difficult in my age." Naruto began but was interrupted.

"Every magus in this era barring a select few can replicate something like that. Its some incredibly basic." Rin declared feeling somewhat aghast at the idea of learning something so low level.

"I fully comprehend that. However the only reason you can do it now is because Mana as you call it has degraded. In my time, the sheer purity of the World's magical energy would have killed you on the spot if you tried to take into yourself unless you had massive internal reserves to counter that effect and the skill to carefully mix it into a well balanced concoction. Unfortunately in the modern era, not only is Mana weaker but so is Od." Naruto explained to his new students in what they would come to dub his full lecture mode. "In other words, because your internal energies are incredibly weak, you are by extension incredibly weak so we will start there. I will teach you how to make your Od stronger."

"Make my Od stronger." Rin mouthed unable to comprehend the idea. The number of circuits you had and the quality of your odd is something that is fixed from birth. This was a well established fact in modern Thaumaturgical Science. Naruto was basically declaring that this was not true. Such knowledge was invaluable.

With a confident smile Naruto replied. "Yep, then I will focus on teaching you how to properly manipulation the shape of your prana and transform its nature before we get to the hard stuff. Not that any of this will be easy for you. After that and hopefully by then you will have a decent understanding of the history of magical energy over the years, we will be ready to truly delve into the various arts." Naruto paused in thought before adding. "Oh and Taijutsu training as well as all its sub-divisions are mandatory."

"How long will this take. Cause the Holy Grail War must only go on for a limited time or the Church will get involved in it and cause a lot of trouble. Maybe even the Mages Association." Rin said knowing the Heaven Feel Ritual only ever lasted a couple of weeks.

"It will take as long as it needs to. And don't worry about anyone else trying to interrupt my lesson plan. I have plan and I am taking steps to prevent any such unwanted attention." Naruto replied with a dark smile that made both Shirou and Rin rather uncomfortable. Even Saber couldn't help but feel a bit of unease at how confident he sounded. She pitied the fool who would try to screw with Naruto and his students lessons while he was training them.

VvV

Illyasviel von Einzbern was still rolling from her defeat at the hands of her brother and his Servant even as she lay on her Queen-sized bed in Einzbern castle. Between the painful memories he'd brought up and his playful but extremely dangerous nature, Naruto had caught Illya off guard when he confronted her and made her concede to things she normally wouldn't. Things like telling him the truth about how she really felt and her reasoning for attacking Shirou.

She still had no idea why she'd done that. At the time she'd just felt like she could trust him cause he seemed so sincere in everything he did. Of course she had checked for mental intrusion any sort but detected nothing of the sort but then again, Naruto had proven just that night that he was a mage and warrior of the highest quality. Hell she'd seen him put the Tohsaka master under hypnosis with a mere snap of his fingers so it wasn't unreasonable to believe he might have influenced her ever so subtly. Paranoia? Maybe?

It was for this reason that when the blond ninja that had been on her thoughts over the last hour suddenly faded into existed next to her bed, she wasn't entirely surprised. Unfortunately she also took his sudden appearance entirely the wrong way and declared. "So you came to finish the job!"

"Huh?" It was all Naruto had time to mutter before he was forced to back flip away from Illya, barely avoiding getting bisected by a materializing Berserker and his stone ax-sword already mid-swing.

Hindsight was Fifty-Fifty and Naruto was rather intelligent when he put his mind to it so he quickly connected the dots on how his sudden appearance and the manner in which he appeared might be taken as an assassination attempt. He needed to end this fast and giving Heracles a chance to continue attacking was simply a bad idea.

Before the demigod could even hope to pursue Naruto, the blond ninja shot forward with his unbelievable speed while simultaneously activating one of his Noble Phantasms. It was another Noble Phantasm rooted in a tittle he'd earned during his long long life. Though he for his purposes he he modified it slightly. " **Savior of the World: Headbutt!** "

The sound of his forehead crashing into that of Heracles was less like two meaty objects colliding and more like the impact of two freighter trains crashing into each other at full speed. It was so powerful that even Heracles found himself knocked flat on his ass and utterly dazed, while Naruto gently landed on his feet and glared down at the son of Zeus.

How much of that was the Noble Phantasm at work and how much of that was the sheer impact of getting headbutted by the most stubborn ninja in all of history, no one was sure. What was known was that, this one move instantly ended the fight there and then. Not because the two servant's couldn't keep going but because their really wasn't any need to fight any more. Naruto had literally removed it, even if Illya had yet to realize this.

"Are you ready to listen now? Or am I wasting my time, in which case the original Naruto will simply blow up your entire castle with another massive prana bomb and this time we wont save you." Naruto growled threateningly.

Illya audibly gulped as she recalled just who it was she was talking to. Naruto Uzumaki, the Heroic Spirit that had defeated her **madness enhanced** Berserker in a straight fight. It should have been impossible but Naruto didn't seem to care very much for the word. He'd also saved her the last time he'd deployed his so called 'Prana Bomb' and so the threat had real merit. Warily she asked. "What do you want?"

In an instant Naruto irritated demeanor changed to something more pleasant as he warmly said. "To offer you a deal that you likely won't hesitate to accept."

He sounded so sure of himself that Illya instantly found herself curious about what kind of a deal he was offering and replied. "I'm listening."

"Stop trying to kill Shirou and stop gunning for Rin and Saber too." Naruto began calmly but with a confidence that only an entity as alien as a Heroic Spirit could ever bring to bare. "Do this and I will bring your father back to the world of the living in a week or two from now so that you may speak with him and get the answers you want. Hell if you are nice about it then I will even make it so you live passed the grail war."

"That's impossible." For many years to come Illya would remain unsure about what exactly she was calling impossible in that moment. Her fathers resurrection, her own life's extension or giving up her desire for vengeance against Shirou. Thankfully an even more unbelievable, yet welcome distraction came at that exact moment.

"Actually milady!" The most unexpected voice interrupted. "That man might be the only Heroic Spirit to ever descend for a Holy Grail War both willing and capable of doing such a thing. Isn't that right O Template of the western Gods!" Heracles deep gravely voice had a certain warmth to it, as his mismatched eyes bore into Naruto's own and smirk graced his mouth. Madness no longer gripped him and his intelligence was plainly visible on his face and in his eyes for all to see.

One of his many secrets had been uncovered and Naruto wasn't too happy about it but he was willing to play along, so he simply replied. "Damn! I was hoping to keep that secret, a little longer, my distant descendant."

TBC...

* * *

Surprise! Heracles isn't insane anymore, or at least he wont be for the next couple of hours. And before you say anything just think of the number of Villains in Naruto that got Headbutted by the blond ninja and reformed, two of which where Sasuke and Obito late in the Fourth Shinobi World War. Both of them at the time were considered madmen in one form or another. However this specific insanity reversing effect of 'Savior of the World' was styled after his fight with Gaara in part one. Yes, back when Gaara was a Psycho-killer ready to murder anyone who looked at him funny all to prove the worth of his own existence. As part of his legend in which Naruto saved innumerable people and the world at least twice, he can specifically alter the effects of Savior of the World for something like that.

Anyway, the next update will definitely be for 'An Unorthodox Hero' maybe even the one after that before I update Chp: 4 of AOTF. Don't worry the story will go one and the updates will come a lot quicker now that I figured out the main issue's with AOTF. Still please leave a review, or pm me if you got questions. Constructive criticism please. You're opinions are helping shape this story bit by bit, even if I can't act on every suggestion. Until next time ladies and gentlemen...ScareletAesir!


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